TikTok—US Supreme Court unanimously upheld law requiring ByteDance to divest TikTok or face nationwide ban
In January 2025, the US Supreme Court unanimously upheld the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, requiring ByteDance to divest TikTok by January 19, 2025 or face a ban. The court found the law sufficiently tailored to address national security concerns over data collection practices by a foreign adversary affecting 170 million US users. TikTok briefly went dark for US users on January 18-19 before Trump issued executive orders delaying enforcement. A consortium including Oracle, Silver Lake, and MGX eventually acquired 80% of TikTok US operations in a deal that closed January 2026.
Scoring Impact
| Topic | Direction | Relevance | Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Corporate Governance | -against | secondary | -0.50 |
| Data Security | -against | primary | -1.00 |
| User Privacy | -against | primary | -1.00 |
| Overall incident score = | -0.283 | ||
Score = avg(topic contributions) × significance (critical ×2) × confidence (0.68)× agency (compelled ×0.25)
Evidence (2 signals)
TikTok went dark for US users on January 18-19 before Trump executive order delayed enforcement
On January 18-19, 2025, TikTok shut down for US users after the Supreme Court upheld the ban. Google and Apple removed the app from their stores. By midday January 19, TikTok began restoring service after Trump signaled he would issue an executive order. On January 20, Trump signed an order halting enforcement for 75 days, later extended to December 16, 2025.
US Supreme Court unanimously upheld TikTok ban-or-divest law in TikTok Inc. v. Garland
On January 17, 2025, the Supreme Court unanimously upheld the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act in TikTok Inc. v. Garland. The unsigned opinion found the law was 'sufficiently tailored to address the Government's interest in preventing a foreign adversary from collecting vast swaths of sensitive data about the 170 million U.S. persons who use TikTok.'