The US Supreme Court agrees to hear TikTok’s bid to halt the ban
The US Supreme Court on Wednesday decided to hear a bid by TikTok and its China-based parent company ByteDance to block a law that would have forced sales of the short-form video app by January 19 or face a ban on national security grounds.
The judges did not immediately respond to an urgent request by TikTok and ByteDance, as well as some users who post content on the social media platform, for an injunction to halt the impending ban, instead hearing arguments on the issue in January. 10.
The protesters are appealing the lower court’s decision upholding the law. About 170 million Americans use TikTok.
Congress adopted this measure in April. The U.S. Department of Justice said that as a Chinese company, TikTok had access to vast amounts of information about American users, from locations to private messages, and secretly controlled the content Americans viewed on the app. TikTok said that it does not pose any threat to the security of the United States.
TikTok and ByteDance asked the Supreme Court on December 16 to stop the law, which they say violates free speech protections under the US Constitution’s First Amendment.
On Wednesday, TikTok said it was pleased the court had resolved the matter. “We believe that a court will find the TikTok ban unconstitutional so that the more than 170 million Americans on our platform can continue to exercise their free speech rights,” the company said.
A shutdown of even one month would cause TikTok to lose about a third of its US users and undermine its ability to attract advertisers, content creators and labor talent, the companies said.
The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in Washington rejected the companies’ First Amendment arguments on December 6.
In their filing with the Supreme Court, TikTok and ByteDance argued that “if Americans choose to continue to openly view content on TikTok, properly informed of the alleged risks of ‘hidden’ content manipulation, the First Amendment protects them from government censorship.” “.
In a brief to the Supreme Court on Wednesday, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell urged the court to reject any delay, comparing TikTok to a hardened criminal.
Trump has a ‘hot spot’ for TikTok
A US ban on TikTok would make the company less valuable to ByteDance and its investors and hurt businesses that depend on TikTok to boost their sales.
US President-elect Donald Trump, who unsuccessfully tried to ban TikTok during his first term in office in 2020, has reversed course and vowed to try to save TikTok during the presidential race this year. On December 16, Trump said that he had “a soft spot in my heart for TikTok” and that he would “look into” the matter.
Trump takes office on January 20, one day after the statutory deadline for TikTok.
The D.C. Circuit wrote in its decision: “The First Amendment exists to protect free speech in the United States. Here, the government acted only to protect that freedom from a foreign enemy nation and to limit that enemy’s ability to collect information about people within the United States.”
TikTok has denied that the US has or will ever share user data, accusing US lawmakers of fostering speculative concerns in the lawsuit and describing the ban as “a radical departure from this country’s tradition of supporting an open internet”.
The dispute comes as trade tensions between the world’s two largest economies escalated 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’s business operations in Canada over national security concerns, but Canadians can still use the app. Government officials said the decision was made based on advice from Canada’s security and intelligence community.
The U.S. law would bar TikTok and other apps controlled by foreign competitors from providing certain services, including those offered through app stores such as Apple and Alphabet’s Google, and would prevent TikTok from continuing to be used in the U.S. unless ByteDance opts out by a deadline. will take effectively.
An unfettered ban could open the door to further crackdowns on other foreign-owned apps. In 2020, Trump also tried to ban WeChat, owned by China’s Tencent, but was blocked by the courts.
Closing order in Canada
In November, citing national security concerns, the Trudeau government ordered TikTok to cease operations in Canada — but said users could still access the popular video app.
The government ordered the shutdown of TikTok’s Canadian business amid a national security investigation into the Chinese company behind the social media platform.
In response, TikTok this month challenged the federal government’s order to shut down its Canadian operations in Federal Court in Vancouver, claiming it would eliminate hundreds of jobs and potentially void a quarter of a million contracts with Canadian advertising clients.
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