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The US Supreme Court will take up TikTok’s challenge to a law that, if allowed to take effect, could lead to the popular social media platform being banned in the US.
The nation’s highest court said in mid-December that he will hear oral arguments in the case on January 10, just before the ban takes effect on January 19. The news comes after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit earlier this month denied both TikTok’s request to overturn the law and a motion for the court to issue an emergency court order suspend the law pending consideration by the Supreme Court.
The law would ban the app if it is not sold to a party deemed suitable by US officials by the January deadline. In its Supreme Court filing, TikTok argued that allowing the law to take effect would infringe on the rights of TikTok’s millions of American users.
TikTok said it is satisfied with the court’s decision to take up its case.
“We believe the court will declare the TikTok ban unconstitutional so that the more than 170 million Americans on our platform can continue to exercise their right to free speech,” the company said in a statement.
In its rulings earlier this month, the appeals court rejected that same argumentacknowledging that while the ban would require TikTok’s millions of users to “find alternative media,” it is justified by the “hybrid trade threat” China poses to US national security.
“The First Amendment exists to protect freedom of speech in the United States,” Chief Circuit Judge Douglas Ginsburg wrote in the ruling. “Here, the government acted solely to protect that freedom from a foreign adversary nation and to limit that adversary’s ability to collect data about people in the United States.”
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Lawmakers from both political parties have long expressed concern that TikTok, which has more than 170 million American users, could be a national security threat and could be used by the Chinese government to spy on Americans or spread disinformation to promote China’s agenda.
TikTok continues to deny those allegations. Ahead of votes in Congress earlier this year, TikTok reunited its American usersasking them to urge their representatives on Capitol Hill to reject the ban. But the measure ultimately passed by wide margins in both chambers of Congress and was signed by President Joe Biden.
Look at this: United States against TikTok: what will happen next
It’s unclear how quickly the Supreme Court could rule, but the company could also get help from the incoming Trump administration. President-elect Donald Trump, who had pushed for a ban during his first term, now says he is no longer in favor of it.
Unless the court stops it, the ban could take effect on Jan. 19, the day before Trump’s inauguration.
So what’s next for lawmakers and TikTok? Here’s what you need to know.
What does the law do?
The law aims to force ByteDance to sell TikTok to a buyer that US officials agree to, as well as ensure that ByteDance no longer has access to US user data or control over TikTok’s algorithm that decides what videos watched by American users.
TikTok was given nine months to comply, hence the Jan. 19 deadline, at which point the government could demand the removal of its app from U.S. app stores. The president could grant an extension of 90 days.
Biden, who signed the bill establishing those requirements, remains in office until Inauguration Day on January 20.
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What’s next?
After originally calling for a ban during his first presidency, Trump said during the 2024 campaign that he was not in favor of a ban and pledged to “save TikTok,” although he did not specify how he would do so.
in a Presentation on December 27Trump asked the Supreme Court to suspend the ban to give him time “to resolve the dispute through political means.”
During a press conference in early December, Trump noted the role TikTok played during the election and credited it with helping him win young votes.
“TikTok had an impact and that’s why we’re looking at it,” Trump told reporters. “I have a warm place in my heart. I’ll be honest.”
Triumph saying in March on CNBC’s Squawk Box that, while he still saw the app as a danger to national security, he no longer thought it should be banned, saying, “There are a lot of little kids on TikTok who would go crazy without it.”
Trump added that banning TikTok would only increase the power of Facebook, which he called the “enemy of the people.”
In September, Trump pledged to “know tiktok“, according to an Associated Press report. But during a interview that aired Sunday on Meet the PressTrump did not directly say whether or how he would help TikTok avoid a ban.
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Who has opposed the TikTok ban?
Free speech and digital rights groups, as well as some security experts, have long opposed the idea of a ban, saying singling out TikTok does nothing to solve social media’s broader problems. Several have already filed briefs with the high court supporting TikTok.
Instead, they argue that lawmakers would be better off passing comprehensive digital privacy laws that would protect Americans’ personal information by preventing all social media companies from collecting it and selling it to data brokers.
Electronic Frontier Foundation Civil Liberties Director David Greene, co-author an amicus curiae brief filed in court Tuesday, said the ban and the appellate court’s approval of it should be of “great concern” even to those who don’t like TikTok.
“Closing media platforms or forcing their reorganization based on concerns of foreign propaganda and anti-national manipulation is an eminently undemocratic tactic, a tactic that the United States has previously condemned globally,” Greene said in an EFF statement.
