US TikTok Ban Looking More Likely After Supreme Court Hears Arguments

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It’s looking more likely that TikTok will be banned from US app stores on January 19 after the United States Supreme Court heard arguments on the case on Friday. The justices indicated that they are leaning toward allowing the ban to be put in place, according to a report from Bloomberg.
A majority of the justices indicated that they see US national security concerns as overriding the free speech interests of the companies and content creators. They also expressed concerns over the personal data collected from TikTok users, how content is manipulated, and the influence that the Chinese government exerts over TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance.
Justice Elena Kagan disagreed with TikTok lawyers’ argument that the government violated the company’s constitutional rights. “The law is only targeted at this foreign corporation, which doesn’t have First Amendment rights,” she said.
Justice John Roberts said, “Congress is fine with the expression,” but “not fine with a foreign adversary … gathering all this information about the 170 million people who use TikTok.” Justice Roberts also quizzed TikTok lawyers about China’s influence on ByteDance. “Are we supposed to ignore the fact that the ultimate parent is in fact subject to doing intelligence work for the Chinese government?” he asked.
TikTok had asked that the Supreme Court delay the app’s ban while the appeals process plays out. However, the court opted to hear the case before the January 19 deadline. The Supreme Court has the option of handing down a ruling on the ban before January 19, or they can postpone the ban going into effect to allow more time for the case to be considered.
If the ban goes into effect, US app stores (such as Apple’s App Store and the Google Play Store) will not be allowed to offer the TikTok app in their stores as of January 19. TikTok users who have already installed the app on their devices can continue using it, although updates will not be available.
ByteDance will be required to sell the TikTok app to a company the US government approves to allow the app to continue to be available for installation. If a sale is not completed before the January 19 deadline, the app could still be once again made available after the sales papers have been signed. For its part, ByteDance says it is not possible to sell the app, as the Chinese government will not allow them to sell TikTok and its algorithm.
The US government banned TikTok from government-owned devices in late 2022 due to concerns that the app was collecting massive amounts of user data and storing it on servers in China. Several other countries — including Australia, Canada, the European Union, New Zealand, Taiwan, and the UK — have instituted similar bans on government employees’ use of the app.
President-elect Trump is indicating that his administration may view things differently from that of the outgoing Biden administration. Trump’s attorney, D. John Sauer, has said that the President-elect wants time to find a solution to the TikTok issue to avoid a potential ban.