The US Supreme Court decided on Wednesday to hear a request from TikTok and its parent company, China-based ByteDance, to block a law aimed at mandating the sale of the short-video app by January 19 or face a ban on national security grounds.
The justices did not immediately act on 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 impending ban, choosing instead to hear arguments on the matter in January. 10.
The challengers are appealing the lower court ruling that upheld the law. TikTok is used by about 170 million Americans.
Congress passed the measure in April. The US Department of Justice said that TikTok, as a Chinese company, poses a “national security threat of enormous scope and depth” due to its access to massive amounts of data on American users, from locations to private messages, and its ability to secretly access and manipulate the content people watch. Americans on the app. TikTok said it does not pose an imminent threat to US security.
TikTok and ByteDance asked the Supreme Court on December 16 to temporarily halt the law, which they said violated free speech protections under the First Amendment to the US Constitution.
TikTok said on Wednesday that it was glad the court would hear the case. “We believe the court will find the TikTok ban unconstitutional so that the more than 170 million Americans on our platform can continue to exercise their rights to free expression,” the company said.
The companies said that shutting them down for just one month would cause TikTok to lose about a third of its US users and undermine its ability to attract advertisers and hire content creators and staff talent.
The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in Washington on December 6 rejected the companies’ First Amendment arguments.
In their filing with the Supreme Court, TikTok and ByteDance said that “if Americans, who have been duly informed of the alleged risks of ‘secret’ content manipulation, choose to continue watching content on TikTok with their eyes wide open, the First Amendment entrusts them with the task of making content on TikTok.” “. This choice, without government oversight.”
On Wednesday, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, in a memorandum submitted to the Supreme Court, urged the court to reject any delay, and compared TikTok to a hardened criminal.
Trump has a “warm spot” for TikTok
A US ban on TikTok would make the company far less valuable to ByteDance and its investors, and hurt companies that rely on TikTok to boost their sales.
US President-elect Donald Trump, who tried unsuccessfully to ban TikTok during his first term in 2020, backed down and promised during this year’s presidential race that he would try to save TikTok. Trump said on December 16 that he had a “soft spot in my heart for TikTok” and that he would “take a look” at it.
Trump takes office on January 20, the day after TikTok’s deadline under the law.
“The First Amendment exists to protect freedom of expression in the United States,” the D.C. Circuit wrote in its decision. “Here the government acted only to protect that freedom from a hostile foreign state and to limit that adversary’s ability to collect data about people in the United States.” US.”
TikTok has denied that it ever shared or would share US user data, accused US lawmakers in the lawsuit of promoting speculative fears, and called the ban a “radical departure from this country’s tradition of defending an open internet.”
The dispute comes at a time of increasing trade tensions between the world’s two largest economies after President Joe Biden’s administration imposed new restrictions on the Chinese 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 on the advice of Canadian security and intelligence services.
US law prohibits the provision of certain services for TikTok and other foreign apps controlled by adversaries, including through app stores such as Apple and Alphabet’s Google, effectively preventing their continued use in the US unless ByteDance divests TikTok by the deadline.
An unhindered ban could open the door to a future crackdown on other foreign-owned apps. In 2020, Trump also tried to ban WeChat, owned by Chinese company Tencent, but it was blocked by the courts.
Lockdown order in Canada
In November, citing national security concerns, the Trudeau government ordered TikTok to close its operations in Canada — but said users would still be able to access the popular video app.
The government had ordered the dissolution of TikTok’s Canadian business following a national security review of the Chinese company behind the social media platform.
In response, TikTok filed documents with the federal court in Vancouver this month challenging the federal government’s order to close its operations in Canada, claiming it would cut hundreds of jobs and could terminate a quarter of a million contracts it has with Canadian advertising clients.
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