Hip-Hop Likely to Lose TikTok as Supreme Court Leans Toward Ban

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It looks like TikTok might soon meet its demise in the United States, as the Supreme Court leaned toward banning the app during a recent hearing on Capitol Hill.

TikTok Ban Seems Imminent

On Friday (Jan. 10), the Court heard oral arguments about a bill passed by President Joe Biden last March that would require TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, to either sell TikTok to a U.S. investor or shut it down in the States by Jan. 19. Both Democrats and Republicans argued in favor of prohibiting the app, citing the security concerns of U.S. users' information being harvested by the Asian company, despite lawyers for ByteDance and a group of users saying the ban violates First Amendment rights.

"The law doesn't say TikTok has to shut down. It says ByteDance has to divest," Justice Amy Coney Barrett said during the hearing, according to Axios.

"The law is only targeted at this foreign corporation that doesn't have First Amendment rights. Whatever effect it has, it has," Justice Elena Kagan said.

The Supreme Court is expected to make a final decision soon, with the looming shutdown date a little over a week away. If the Court rules in favor to ban the app, TikTok would lose over 170 million U.S. users.

There may be a saving grace, however. Billionaire Frank McCourt’s Project Liberty has reportedly submitted a bid to buy the app. The proposed purchase would put TikTok under American ownership and save the app from disappearing Stateside.

"We’ve put forward a proposal to ByteDance to realize Project Liberty’s vision for a reimagined TikTok—one built on an American-made tech stack that puts people first," McCourt, Project Liberty’s founder, said in the statement. “By keeping the platform alive without relying on the current TikTok algorithm and avoiding a ban, millions of Americans can continue to enjoy the platform."

Hip-hop and TikTok have had a symbiotic relationship over the past few years, with many rappers gaining popularity when their songs are used on the platform, in turn making TikTok a go-to place for finding viral songs. Some people have even argued that the music industry as a whole could take a hit if TikTok dissolves. It looks like we will have an answer about the future of the app sooner than later.