US Supreme Court agrees to hear TikTok bid to lift ban
The U.S. Supreme Court decided Wednesday to hear a bid by TikTok and its China-based parent company ByteDance to block a law that would force sales of the short-video app by Jan. 19 or face a ban on grounds of the national security.
The judges did not immediately respond to an emergency request from TikTok and ByteDance, as well as some of its users who post content on the social media platform, for an injunction to stop the looming ban, but instead chose to hear arguments on this one Matter to be heard in January. 10.
The challengers are appealing a lower court’s decision that upheld the law. TikTok is used by approximately 170 million Americans.
Congress passed the measure in April. The US Department of Justice had said that as a Chinese company, TikTok poses “a threat to national security of immense depth and scope” because it has access to vast amounts of data on American users, from locations to private messages, and the ability to to secretly send these manipulation of content Americans see on the app. TikTok has said it does not pose an imminent threat to U.S. security.
TikTok and ByteDance asked the Supreme Court on Dec. 16 to suspend the law, which they say violates free speech protections under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
TikTok said on Wednesday it was pleased the court would consider the matter. “We believe the court will find the TikTok ban unconstitutional so that the over 170 million Americans on our platform can continue to exercise their right to free speech,” the company said.
The companies said a shutdown of just a month would cause TikTok to lose about a third of its U.S. users and undermine its ability to attract advertisers and recruit content creators and employee talent.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in Washington on Dec. 6 rejected the companies’ First Amendment arguments.
In their statement of claim filed with the Supreme Court, TikTok and ByteDance stated: “If Americans, properly informed of the alleged risks of ‘covert’ content manipulation, choose to continue watching content on TikTok with their eyes wide open, the First Amendment will confer upon them.” .” this election, free from government censorship.”
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, in a brief filed with the Supreme Court on Wednesday, urged the court to reject any delay and compared TikTok to a hardened criminal.
Trump has a “warm place” for TikTok
A U.S. ban on TikTok would make the company significantly less valuable to ByteDance and its investors and harm companies that rely on TikTok to boost their sales.
US President-elect Donald Trump, who unsuccessfully tried to ban TikTok during his first term in 2020, has changed his tune and promised during the presidential campaign this year that he would try to save TikTok. Trump said on December 16 that he had a “heart for TikTok” and that he would “look into” it.
Trump takes office on January 20, one day after the legal deadline for TikTok.
In its decision, the D.C. Circuit wrote: “The First Amendment is designed to protect free speech in the United States. Here the government acted solely to protect that freedom from a foreign adversary state and to limit that adversary’s ability to collect data about people in the United States.”
TikTok has denied sharing U.S. user data or ever intending to do so, accusing American lawmakers in the lawsuit of raising speculative concerns and calling the ban a “radical departure from this country’s tradition of supporting an open internet.” to use”.
The dispute comes at a time of rising trade tensions between the world’s two largest economies after President Joe Biden’s administration imposed new restrictions on China’s chip industry and China responded with a ban on exports of gallium, germanium and antimony to the United States.
Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government has banned TikTok from operating in Canada on national security grounds, but Canadians can still use the app. Government officials said the decision was made on the advice of Canada’s security and intelligence community.
The US law would ban the provision of certain services to TikTok and other apps controlled by foreign adversaries, including offering them through app stores such as Apple and Alphabet’s Google, effectively preventing further use in the US unless ByteDance divests TikTok on time.
An unfettered ban could open the door to future crackdowns on other foreign-owned apps. In 2020, Trump also tried to ban WeChat, owned by Chinese company Tencent, but was blocked by the courts.
Shutdown order in Canada
In November, the Trudeau government ordered TikTok to close its operations in Canada, citing national security concerns – but said users could still access the popular video app.
The government had ordered the dismantling of TikTok’s Canadian operations amid a national security review of the Chinese company behind the social media platform.
In response, TikTok filed documents in federal court in Vancouver this month challenging the federal government’s order to halt its operations in Canada, claiming the company will cut hundreds of jobs and could terminate a quarter of a million contracts with Canadian advertisers.
