“FOREIGN ADVERSARIES”
Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, arguing for the Biden administration in defending the law, said it was crucial that it take effect on Jan 19 as scheduled in order to force ByteDance to act on divestiture.
“Foreign adversaries do not willingly give up their control over this mass communications channel in the United States,” Prelogar said.Â
“When push comes to shove, and these restrictions take effect, I think it will fundamentally change the landscape with respect to what ByteDance is willing to consider. And it might be just the jolt that Congress expected the company would need to actually move forward with the divestiture process,” Prelogar said.
If the ban takes effect on Jan 19, Apple and Alphabet’s Google would no longer be able to offer TikTok for downloads for new users but existing users could still access the app. The US government and TikTok agree that the app would degrade and eventually become unusable over time because companies would not be able to offer supporting services.
The Supreme Court also debated whether the possibility of TikTok being used for covert influence campaigns or propaganda purposes by China justified the banning it.
“Look, everybody manipulates content,” Francisco told the court. “There are lots of people who think CNN, Fox News, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times are manipulating their content. That is core protected speech.”
Trump on Dec 27 urged the court to put a hold on the Jan 19 deadline to give his incoming administration “the opportunity to pursue a political resolution of the questions at issue in the case”.
Under the law, the US president has the power to extend the Jan 19 deadline for 90 days, but under circumstances that do not appear to apply to the current situation in which ByteDance has made no apparent effort to sell TikTok’s US assets.
The law mandates that the president certify that significant progress has been made toward a sale, with binding legal agreements.
Regardless, Trump does not become president until after the deadline – though Francisco said “we might be in a different world” once Trump is back in the White House.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh asked Prelogar whether the president could “say that we’re not going to enforce this law”.
“I think as a general matter, of course the president has enforcement discretion,” Prelogar said.
“Again, that’s one of the reasons why I think it makes perfect sense to issue a preliminary injunction here and simply buy everybody a little breathing space,” Francisco said.
Source: CNA
