TikTok’s trial before the US Supreme Court: This is what was said today
“Whether you call (the law) a divestment or a ban, one thing is clear: It is a burden on TikTok’s speech, therefore the First Amendment applies,” TikTok lawyers argued before the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday.
Today’s Supreme Court hearings mark the beginning of the end TikTok’s long legal battle against the US government. The hearing began at 10 a.m. ET and lasted just over two hours. During that time, lawyers for TikTok and U.S. Attorney General Elizabeth Prelogar presented their preliminary arguments and answered questions from the justices.
Similar to previous lawsuits, the U.S. government argued that the popular video app could pose a threat to national security and could be used by the Chinese government to spy on Americans. TikTok has steadfastly denied these accusations, saying the 2024 law — which passed by large majorities in both houses of Congress and signed by President Biden — violates the First Amendment rights of TikTok’s 170 million active U.S. users. The hearings come just nine days before the upcoming divestment or ban deadline on January 19th.
Check this out: USA vs. TikTok: What happens next
TikTok’s lawyer Noel Francisco opened the hearing. The judges asked many questions to understand the relationship between TikTok US and its China-based parent company – particularly how big the risk of “covert content manipulation” is and what exactly that means. For purposes of the hearing, the sentence referred to the ability of politically motivated actors to adjust TikTok’s algorithms to change the videos users see.
A sticking point during the hearing was the secret evidence presented by the U.S. government that remained unresolved in the lower courts. While questioning Francisco, a judge’s question confirmed that in this evidence the US government “acknowledges that it has no evidence that TikTok has engaged in covert content manipulation in this country,” but both sides disagree on this , whether ByteDance has “responded” The People’s Republic of China is calling for content outside of China to be censored.
Prelogar concluded the hearing, saying in her opening statement, “TikTok’s massive data set would give the People’s Republic of China a powerful tool for harassment, recruitment and espionage.” She expressed concerns that not only users’ data was at risk, but also the other people’s data in their contacts, and expressed concern that the data of teenagers and young children in particular was at risk.
One of the most notable moments of the hearing is when Prelogar argued that ByteDance would use the social platform to sow discord among Americans and distract them from Chinese manipulation, to which Chief Justice Roberts responded: “ByteDance could try to reach through TikTok. “ Americans arguing with each other? If they do that, then I say they win.
What happens next for TikTok?
The next step is for the court to deliberate on the case and then make a final decision. We don’t know exactly when it will announce its decision.
If the Supreme Court rules that the law violates the First Amendment, the court could strike it down. If the Supreme Court finds the law does not violate the First Amendment and upholds it, TikTok would have just days to find a U.S. buyer for the app to meet the Jan. 19 deadline. ByteDance said it was prepared to shut down the app in the US if the court rules against it, with Francisco saying it would “shut down” TikTok on January 19.
The January 19 deadline is also the day before Trump’s inauguration. President-elect Trump recently signaled that he no longer opposes a TikTok ban, marking a significant departure from his stance during his first term. Last week Trump lawyers filed an amicus brief in the case. They didn’t take sides, but instead asked the court to delay the ban to give Trump time to find a “political solution,” although the brief didn’t provide specific details about what that would look like. Either way, Trump won’t be able to do anything until he’s sworn in as president on the 20th, so there could be a period of stoppage of service.
