The US Supreme Court will take up TikTok’s challenge of a law that if allowed to go into effect could lead to a US ban of the popular social media platform.
The nation’s highest court said in mid-December that it will hear oral arguments in the case on Jan. 10, just before the ban is set to kick in on Jan. 19. The news comes after the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit earlier this month denied both TikTok’s request to overturn the law and a motion for the court to issue an emergency injunction to put the law on hold pending Supreme Court consideration.
The law would ban the app if it’s not sold to a party deemed fit by US officials by the January deadline. In its Supreme Court filing, TikTok argued that allowing the law to go into effect would infringe on the rights of TikTok’s millions of US users.
TikTok said it’s pleased with the court’s decision to take up its case.
“We believe the court will find the TikTok ban unconstitutional so the over 170 million Americans on our platform can continue to exercise their free speech rights,” the company said in a statement.
In its rulings earlier this month, the appeals court rejected that same argument, acknowledging that while the ban would require TikTok’s millions of users “to find alternative media of communication,” it’s justified by the “hybrid commercial threat” China poses to US national security.
“The First Amendment exists to protect free speech in the United States,” Senior Circuit Judge Douglas Ginsburg wrote in the ruling. “Here, the government acted solely to protect that freedom from a foreign adversary nation and to limit that adversary’s ability to gather data on people in the United States.”
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Lawmakers in both political parties have long voiced concerns that TikTok, which has more than 170 million American users, could be a threat to national security and could be used by the Chinese government to spy on Americans or spread disinformation to further China’s agenda.
TikTok continues to deny those accusations. Ahead of votes in Congress earlier this year, TikTok rallied its US users, calling on them to urge their representatives on Capitol Hill to vote down a ban. But the measure ultimately passed by wide margins in both chambers of Congress and was signed by President Joe Biden.
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It’s unclear how quickly the Supreme Court could rule, but the company also could get help from the incoming Trump administration. President-elect Donald Trump, who’d pushed for a ban during his first term, now says he’s no longer in favor of one.
Unless halted by the court, the ban could go into effect as soon as Jan. 19, the day before Trump is set to be inaugurated.
So what’s next for lawmakers and TikTok? Here’s what you need to know.
What does the law do?
The law is aimed at forcing ByteDance to sell TikTok to a buyer American officials are OK with, as well as guaranteeing that ByteDance no longer has access to US user data or control over the TikTok algorithm that decides what videos American users see.
TikTok was given nine months to comply, hence the Jan. 19 deadline, at which point the government could require the removal of its app from US app stores. The president could grant a 90-day extension.
Biden, who signed the bill that established those requirements, remains in office until Inauguration Day on Jan. 20.
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What’s next?
After originally calling for a ban during his first presidency, Trump said during the 2024 campaign that he wasn’t in favor of one and pledged to “save TikTok,” though he didn’t specify how he’d do that.
In a Dec. 27 filing, Trump asked the Supreme Court to pause the ban so that he would have time “to resolve the dispute through political means.”
During a press conference earlier in December, Trump pointed to the roll TikTok played during the election, crediting it with helping him pick up the votes of young people.
“TikTok had an impact, and so we’re taking a look at it,” Trump told the press. “I have a little bit of a warm spot in my heart. I’ll be honest.”
Trump said in March on CNBC’s Squawk Box that though he still viewed the app as a danger to national security, he no longer thought it should be banned, saying, “There are a lot of young kids on TikTok who will go crazy without it.”
Trump added that banning TikTok would only boost the power of Facebook, which he referred to as an “enemy of the people.”
In September, Trump pledged to “save TikTok,” according to an Associated Press report. But during an interview that aired Sunday on Meet the Press, Trump didn’t directly say if or how he’d help TikTok avoid a ban.
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Who has opposed the TikTok ban?
Free speech and digital rights groups, as well as some security experts, have long opposed the idea of a ban, saying that singling out TikTok doesn’t do anything to solve the broader problems with social media. Several have already filed briefs with the high court supporting TikTok.
Instead they argue that lawmakers would be better off passing comprehensive digital privacy laws that would protect the personal information of Americans by stopping all social media companies from collecting it and selling it to data brokers.
Electronic Frontier Foundation Civil Liberties Director David Greene, who co-authored an amicus brief submitted to the court on Tuesday, said that the ban and the appeals court’s approval of it should be of “great concern” even to those who don’t like TikTok.
“Shutting down communications platforms or forcing their reorganization based on concerns of foreign propaganda and anti-national manipulation is an eminently anti-democratic tactic, one that the U.S. has previously condemned globally,” Greene said in an EFF statement.
Source: CNET
