In early 2024, the Biden Administration signed a potential TikTok ban into law, a notion with momentum support from both Democratic and Republican parties, which may now become a reality. 

On Jan. 10, the nine justices of the Supreme Court heard three hours of oral arguments over this law, which faces the ultimatum of the app being sold off from its China-based parent company, ByteDance, or a complete U.S. ban.

In support of the app, TikTok’s attorneys argued that the ban would violate free speech protections for the app’s nearly 170 million U.S. users. However, the U.S. government argued that the app may bring national security threats, seeing the platform as a potential tool for China to spy and utilize political manipulation. The app has constantly denied any connection to the Chinese Communist Party.

Many questions arise about what an app ban truly means because there is no set precedent for such a phenomenon. 

If the potential ban goes into effect, it may not be an immediate change in access to the app. 

The U.S. government is expected to force store operators to remove TikTok from their platforms, so new users cannot download it to their devices. Existing members may access the app but without access to the app store for updates, the app will slowly degenerate and likely be impossible to use. 

The government may also force American internet service providers to block TikTok, making its website version unavailable.