- The Supreme Court ruled against TikTok on its challenge against a divest-or-ban law.
- TikTok's owner ByteDance has until January 19 to divest from its US app or face a shutdown.
- President-elect Donald Trump may still try to rescue the app once in office.
The Supreme Court decided not to rescue TikTok from a divest-or-ban law.
The justices said on Friday that the law does not violate the First Amendment rights of TikTok and its creators.
As a result, TikTok is likely to "go dark" in the US on January 19 as app stores and other business partners sever ties with the company to comply with the law.
TikTok may also voluntarily shut down its app in the US on Sunday, The Information and Reuters reported earlier this week. TikTok has declined to comment on its plans.
The company on Tuesday sent a memo to US employees reassuring them that they would still have jobs even if the app gets banned.
The Supreme Court's decision wasexpected.Legal analysts told Business Insider last week that thecourt was likely to rule against TikTokin deference to Congress' authority over national-security concerns.
Speaking before Friday's decision, Neama Rahmani, a formal federal prosecutor in California, told BI that he expected the Supreme Court to uphold the law.
He described how, at last week's hearing, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh, appointed by Republican presidents, were "talking about the national security concerns."
"Even Kagan was skeptical. When you have a conservative majority that's focused on the national security concerns, it does seem like the law will be upheld," Rahmani said.
TikTok's appeal arrived in the Supreme Court after it lost its legal challenge to the divest-or-ban law in the DC Circuit in December.
TikTok was a primary target of The Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, which passed in April and sought to curb the influence of social platforms with foreign-adversary owners.
With its legal outlook looking dim, TikTok may be banking on a different path to survival: the return of President-elect Donald Trump, who will be inaugurated on Monday.
Trump pledged to try to save TikTok once in office, saying during a December 16 press conference that he had "a warm spot in my heart for TikTok." On December 27, he filed anamicus briefto the Supreme Court, asking for a stay on TikTok's divestment deadline so he could work out a political resolution.
"President Trump opposes banning TikTok in the United States at this juncture, and seeks the ability to resolve the issues at hand through political means once he takes office," the brief said.