The US Supreme Court on Wednesday decided to hear a request by TikTok and its Chinese parent company ByteDance to block a bill aimed at forcing the sale of the short-video app by January 19 or face a ban on national security grounds.
Following an urgent request from TikTok and ByteDance, as well as some users who post content on the social media platform, the justices did not immediately respond, opting instead to hear arguments in the case on January 1. 10.
The defendants are appealing a lower court ruling that upheld the law. Approximately 170 million Americans use TikTok.
Congress adopted this solution in April. The U.S. Department of Justice said that as a Chinese company, TikTok poses a “national security threat of enormous depth and scale” due to its access to vast amounts of data on American users, from location to private messages, as well as its ability to covertly manipulate content viewed by Americans in the application. TikTok has said it does not pose an immediate threat to U.S. security.
On December 16, TikTok and ByteDance asked the Supreme Court to stop a bill they say violates free speech protections under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
On Wednesday, TikTok expressed satisfaction that the court would hear the case. “We believe the court will find the TikTok ban unconstitutional so that the more than 170 million Americans who use our platform will be able to continue to exercise their right to free speech,” the company said.
The companies said shutting down TikTok for even a month would result in the loss of about a third of its U.S. users and weaken its ability to attract advertisers and recruit content creators and employee talent.
On December 6, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in Washington rejected the companies' First Amendment arguments.
In their Supreme Court filing, TikTok and ByteDance argued that “if Americans, duly informed of the alleged risks of 'covert' content manipulation, choose to continue viewing content on TikTok with their eyes wide open, the First Amendment entrusts them with that choice, free from government censorship.”
On Wednesday, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, in a brief filed with the Supreme Court, urged the court to reject any delays, likening TikTok to a hardened criminal.
Trump has a “warm spot” for TikTok
A US ban on TikTok would make the company much less valuable to ByteDance and its investors, and would also hurt companies that depend on TikTok for sales.
US President-elect Donald Trump, who unsuccessfully tried to ban TikTok during his first term in 2020, has changed his position and promised during this year's presidential campaign that he would try to save TikTok. Trump said on December 16 that he had a “warm place in my heart for TikTok” and that he would “look into” the matter.
Trump will take office on January 20, the day after TikTok's legal deadline.
In its decision, the D.C. Circuit wrote: “The First Amendment is intended to protect free speech in the United States. In this case, the government acted solely to protect that freedom from a hostile foreign country and to limit that adversary's ability to collect data about individuals in the United States.”
TikTok denies it has or has ever shared U.S. user data, accusing U.S. lawmakers in the lawsuit of raising speculative concerns and characterized the ban as a “radical departure from the country's tradition of advocating for an open internet.”
The dispute comes at a time of growing 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 by banning exports of gallium, germanium and antimony to the United States.
Justin Trudeau's Liberal government has banned TikTok businesses in Canada on national security grounds, but Canadians can still use the app. Government officials said the decision was made after consulting Canada's security and intelligence community.
The U.S. law would prohibit TikTok and other apps controlled by foreign adversaries from providing certain services, including offering them through app stores such as Apple's and Alphabet's Google, effectively barring their continued use in the U.S. unless ByteDance divests TikTok within a designated period of time. deadline.
An unimpeded ban could open the door to future attacks on other foreign-owned apps. In 2020, Trump also tried to block WeChat, owned by Chinese company Tencent, but it was blocked by the courts.
Shutdown order in Canada
In November, citing national security concerns, the Trudeau government ordered TikTok to shut down its Canadian operations but said users would still be able to access the popular video app.
The government has ordered the dissolution of Canadian company TikTok following a national security review of the Chinese company behind the social media platform.
In response, TikTok filed papers in the Federal Court in Vancouver this month challenging the federal government's order to close its operations in Canada, saying it would eliminate hundreds of jobs and could terminate the quarter of a million contracts it has with Canadian advertising clients.