TikTok may not be able to rely on Mr Unreliable

The app's existence brings little upside for Trump personally now that he's no longer chasing votes.

- Dave Lee

A federal appeals court ruling on Dec 6 reaffirmed that a TikTok ban is more likely than not in the US.

It should be a wake-up call to the app's millions of users, particularly those who have built careers on it. To date, they have kept calm and carried on - a collective denial that the day would ever come when they would be unable to log on. That day is set to be Jan 19, the day before President-elect Donald Trump is set to be inaugurated for his second term.

According to Pew, support for a TikTok ban has fallen considerably since it was first on the table in 2023. It would prove especially unpopular among the Gen Z voting bloc, which has been credited with helping Trump find his way back to the White House.

One of his first significant decisions may be to disappoint it.

TikTok plans to appeal to the US Supreme Court and said in a statement that it was confident the justices would follow their "established historical record of protecting Americans' right to free speech".

Some legal observers disagree, thinking it more likely that the conservative-leaning High Court would - if it even takes the case - concur with the unanimous ruling from the appeals court in Washington, which said national security concerns, hypothetical as they were, outweighed the free speech argument. The court concluded that the option to divest meant TikTok had a path to allow the app to carry on. (TikTok argues divestiture is impossible. The court said that was China's fault for blocking the export of TikTok's famous algorithm.)

Still, TikTok could at least pause the clock. It is expected to seek a Supreme Court injunction to hold off that January deadline, pushing the matter into Trump's administration.