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An appeals court may decide TikTok’s fate as soon as today, weeks before an American ban on the social media platform was set to go into effect. That’s if the incoming Trump administration doesn’t decide to upend the court’s decision.

TikTok debuted in the US in 2017 as a platform for short-form videos and became the most downloaded app in the world during the pandemic, a hub for creatives, activists, politicians, and more. However, as its influence grew, so did concerns that the app, owned by a Chinese company, could endanger American interests. That led to a bipartisan effort to force it to cut its ties with China or ban it.

The ban, which would drop TikTok from US app stores if its owner ByteDance does not divest by January 19, passed and was signed by President Joe Biden in April. TikTok and some of its content creators swiftly challenged the law in court, arguing that it violates the free speech rights of its more than 150 million American users.

The Department of Justice has countered that the app, given its connection to a foreign adversary, must be banned for national security reasons.

TikTok and the DOJ have asked the DC Circuit to issue a ruling in the case by today. 

But that won’t necessarily resolve the matter of a ban once and for all, in part because the incoming Trump administration could reverse course on the government’s TikTok policy.

President-elect Donald Trump has had a fickle relationship with TikTok. His cabinet picks are also divided on how to handle the platform. That leaves TikTok’s future uncertain, regardless of the outcome of legal challenges to a ban.

A TikTok ban has been in the works since the first Trump administration.

Lawmakers have argued for years that the Chinese government is using the app to spy on Americans by collecting their personal data and to spread propaganda that could be used to influence US elections.

Trump, ever the anti-China hawk, tried to ban the platform unilaterally via executive order in 2020. But the order faced swift legal challenges that were never resolved before Biden came into office and rescinded it, instead helping craft legislation to ban it.

When the bill passed, ByteDance refused to sell TikTok, despite the fact that the company likely could have found a US buyer.  

TikTok instead challenged the law in court, arguing that it violated American users’ free speech rights under the First Amendment of the US Constitution.

Legal experts say Congress likely doesn’t have the power to outright ban TikTok or any social media platform under the First Amendment unless it can prove that it poses legitimate and serious privacy and national security concerns that can’t be addressed by any other means. The question in the case before the DC Circuit is whether the government could have, in fact, addressed its national security concerns by other means and whether this ban actually does so. 

The government’s national security arguments in the lawsuit are redacted in legal filings. But reports have suggested that both the Chinese government and TikTok employees have abused the app’s user data. A former employee of ByteDance has alleged in court that the government accessed user data on a widespread basis for political purposes during the 2018 protests in Hong Kong. And last December, ByteDance acknowledged it had fired four employees who accessed the data of two journalists while trying to track down an internal leaker.

The DC Circuit appeared skeptical of some of TikTok’s points during oral arguments in the case. The court noted that the US already bans foreign ownership of broadcasting licenses, asking why a ban on TikTok is substantially different.  

If the court upholds the ban, an appeal to the Supreme Court is likely. And since banning TikTok is an issue that cuts across party lines, it’s not clear how the conservative majority would rule. 

Trump’s return to the White House may also introduce uncertainty into the implementation of the ban, if it survives legal challenges.

Despite previously seeking to ban TikTok, Trump has since warmed to the platform, on which he now has 14.6 million followers, and he has vowed to save it.

It’s unclear what exactly brought about his reversal. He’s said that banning TikTok would only benefit Meta, and he may be out for revenge against the company, which blocked him from Instagram and Facebook for two years following the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the US Capitol.

“Without TikTok, you can make Facebook bigger, and I consider Facebook to be an enemy of the people,” Trump told CNBC in March.

Another factor could be the influence of one of Trump’s billionaire megadonors. Jeff Yass’s investment firm Susquehanna reportedly owns 15 percent of TikTok’s parent company, a stake worth about $40 billion, according to the Financial Times. As of May, Yass had contributed more than any other individual donor to Republican candidates.

Trump may have several options if he does decide to oppose the TikTok ban. The language of the ban is “broad and invests the president with quite a bit of discretion in how he chooses to enforce the ban,” George Wang, a staff attorney at the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, told Vox. That includes determining whether ByteDance has engaged in a “qualified divestiture” from TikTok that would save it from a ban.

“It could grant the president some leeway to decline to enforce the ban if TikTok or ByteDance comes to some sufficient solution,” Wang said.

He might also be able to negotiate with Chinese officials to achieve a sale of TikTok to a US buyer in compliance with the law. 

According to Wang, the best outcome would be a more permanent solution that protects Americans’ First Amendment rights.

 Buda Mendes/Getty Images

France’s government just collapsed. Now what? Following a vote of no confidence on Wednesday, center-right Prime Minister Michel Barnier is out of a job, and President Emmanuel Macron now must replace him, despite growing political divisions in the country. Disagreements about who should be prime minister may worsen the impact of the country’s looming economic crises.

Spotify Wrapped has never felt more stale: Many users of the music streaming service were disappointed with this year’s personalized end-of-year roundup, which came with odd AI-powered features, a surprising lack of data points, and few ways to discover new music.

Why the surprise offensive in Syria shocked the world: The war in Syria, which has been fought since 2011 and may have resulted in the deaths of more than half a million people and displaced millions more, has become a global afterthought amid other conflicts in the Middle East. Now, a rebel coalition has taken control of the city of Aleppo, as well as more than 200 surrounding towns, re-centering the conflict in the global spotlight.

It’s easy to recycle old electronics: According to a United Nations report, only 12 percent of small electronics get recycled. The numbers don’t get much better for larger electronics: Billions of pounds of equipment, from old iPods to broken TVs, simply get thrown away. Here’s how to best recycle all the e-waste taking up space in your house.

Trump’s win has ignited a wave of bullying — again: Following the 2024 election, children across the country are encountering hate speech and harassment at school. Experts, school officials, and parents are dismayed at what they say is the continuation of a disturbing pattern of harassment that began in 2016.

Hannah Kobayashi’s mysterious non-disappearance, explained: The high-profile missing person case has taken an odd turn, with police confirming that Kobayashi used her passport to purchase a bus ticket from Los Angeles to the Mexican border, then crossed over into Mexico from San Ysidro. The news comes after the tragic apparent suicide of Kobayashi’s father.

The hunt for the UnitedHealthcare CEO's killer, and for answers: The bizarre apparent assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson as he was slated to attend the company's investors meeting continues to confound New York police, whose search for the killer continued Thursday evening. The killing has also drawn many online commenters into a broader conversation about grievances with the insurance industry. [New York Times]

School shooting in California: On Wednesday, a gunman entered a Seventh-day Adventist school, leaving two young children in critical condition. The gunman was declared dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. [NBC News] 

Bitcoin continues to soar: The cryptocurrency has reached a new record, surging above $100,000 in the wake of President-elect Donald Trump’s crypto-friendly administration picks earlier this week. [CNN]

Spencer Platt/Getty Images

More US consumers have turned to SUVs in the last two decades, and as they have, the number of people killed by “light trucks” — vehicles that weigh up to 8,500 pounds and include many SUVs, vans, and pickups — has risen markedly.  

According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, vehicles with hoods higher than 40 inches, like those seen on many SUVs, “are about 45 percent more likely to cause fatalities in pedestrian crashes” than cars with lower, sloping hoods. 

The graphic above demonstrates how the vehicle design of SUVs can affect drivers’ ability to see pedestrians, and especially children. But a new rule for testing vehicle safety adopted last month could give consumers a complete picture of a car’s ability to protect drivers and pedestrians. Read senior correspondent Marin Cogan on the safety rule that may ultimately make roads safer.

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Today’s edition was produced and edited by senior editor Lavanya Ramanathan, with contributions from staff editor Melinda Fakuade. We'll see you next week!

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