TikTok v. Garland: the 2025 Supreme Court ruling, the enforcement delays and the U.S. joint venture

On January 17, 2025, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in TikTok Inc. v. Garland that the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, as applied to TikTok's operating companies and a group of U.S. users, does “not violate petitioners' First Amendment rights.” From January 19, 2025, the Act barred companies in the United States from offering services that distribute, maintain or update TikTok, unless its U.S. operation had been cut off from Chinese control. None of the records we checked shows it repealed. What changed afterward was how the executive branch applied it: five executive orders in 2025 held off enforcement, and the last of them approved a plan to move the U.S. app into a new joint venture.

What the 2024 law requires

Congress enacted the Act as Division H of Public Law 118-50, approved April 24, 2024. It designates by name any app operated, directly or indirectly, by ByteDance Ltd. or TikTok as a “foreign adversary controlled application,” and the prohibitions on those apps took effect 270 days after enactment. The ban falls on intermediaries, not on users: it covers app stores and other marketplaces that distribute, maintain or update a designated app, and internet hosting services that enable them to. A company that breaks it faces a civil penalty of up to $5,000 multiplied by the number of U.S. users who accessed, maintained or updated the app as a result.

The way out is a “qualified divestiture.” The President must determine that it leaves the app “no longer being controlled by a foreign adversary” and that it rules out any operational relationship with the former owners, including cooperation on the content recommendation algorithm or an agreement on data sharing. The Act followed earlier efforts: federal courts enjoined the prohibitions of a 2020 executive order on TikTok, and talks on a national security agreement with ByteDance in 2021 and 2022 never produced a final deal, the Court recounted.

What the Court decided

TikTok's operating companies and a group of creators applied for an injunction on December 16, 2024. The Court treated the applications as petitions, granted them on December 18, heard argument on January 10, 2025, and ruled a week later, affirming the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, which had upheld the Act. In an unsigned (per curiam) opinion, the Court assumed without deciding that the First Amendment applied, found the provisions content neutral and applied intermediate scrutiny. It held that the Act serves an important interest, stopping China from using its control over ByteDance to collect the personal data of U.S. users, and does not “burden substantially more speech than necessary.” It also found that Congress would have passed the law on that data rationale alone, so it did not rule on the government's second concern, that China could use the recommendation algorithm to alter content undetectably.

The Court acknowledged what was at stake for users. “There is no doubt that, for more than 170 million Americans, TikTok offers a distinctive and expansive outlet for expression, means of engagement, and source of community,” it wrote, before concluding that Congress had determined divestiture was necessary. Two justices wrote separately. Justice Sotomayor joined all but one part, saying precedent left “no doubt” that the Act implicates the First Amendment. Justice Gorsuch, concurring in the judgment, noted that the Court had “a fortnight” to resolve the case and said it rightly refrained from endorsing the content-manipulation rationale.

Enforcement on hold through 2025

The prohibitions took effect on January 19, 2025, the day before the new administration took office. On January 20, Executive Order 14166 told the Attorney General not to enforce the Act for 75 days and said the Justice Department would not penalize conduct during that period or since January 19. Three further orders extended the delay, and a fifth, in September, paired a further 120-day pause with a finding that a proposed deal would satisfy the law.

The joint venture plan

Executive Order 14352, “Saving TikTok While Protecting National Security,” describes a framework agreement under which TikTok's U.S. app is to be run by a new U.S.-based joint venture. The venture is to be majority-owned and controlled by U.S. persons, with ByteDance and its affiliates owning less than 20% and the rest held by investors the order calls “Investor Parties.” According to the order, the venture would control the algorithms, code and content-moderation decisions; sensitive U.S. user data would have to be stored in a cloud run by an American company; and “trusted security partners” would monitor software updates and data flows and retrain the recommendation models that use U.S. data.

On that basis the President determined that the divestiture, “once its implementation agreements are executed,” is a qualified divestiture covering TikTok, Lemon8, CapCut and other apps the venture runs. The order also named the Attorney General as the government's representative under the framework. These are the administration's own findings: the order says the plan “resolves these national security concerns.” It does not name the investors or publish the agreement's other terms.

What applies now

None of the records we checked shows the Act repealed or amended. A Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel opinion dated July 16, 2026, says that “In January 2026, the divestiture was finalized” and that the venture was set up as the executive order contemplated; it gives no exact day. Citing a March 2026 memo from the venture's general counsel, the opinion says ByteDance still “owns 19.9% of the joint venture” and that its three managing investors, Silver Lake, Oracle and MGX, jointly hold 45 percent of the shares. It does not name the holders of the other shares. The opinion concluded that the 2022 law barring TikTok from federal government devices does not reach the venture's version of the app.

Oracle's SEC filings give its own stake. Its quarterly report for the period ended February 28, 2026, says the substantial majority of its non-marketable investments were with TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC, “an equity method investee in which we have an ownership interest of 15%.” Its annual report for the year ended May 31, 2026, and its quarterly report for the period ended August 31, 2026, give the same 15% figure. By the later date, Oracle's non-marketable investments totaled $2.4 billion.

Our search of the Federal Register's records on November 12, 2026, found no presidential document on TikTok after Executive Order 14352, which reserves the President's authority to issue further orders; the Justice Department's July opinion also relies on that order. For another federal law that set new duties for platforms in 2025, see our explainer on the TAKE IT DOWN Act.