The company that owns TikTok went to the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday to try to fend off a new law that would see the wildly popular social media app banned later this month.
The law would prohibit companies such as Apple and Google from making TikTok available to users in the United States unless its China-based parent company, ByteDance, sells it.
The ban is set to go into effect on January 19, the day before Donald Trump is inaugurated as president.
The highest court in the United States hears ByteDance’s latest attempt to overturn the ban as unconstitutional.
Here’s what you need to know.
Why do US lawmakers want to ban TikTok?
The US government considers Chinese ownership of TikTok a “serious threat to national security” because the Chinese government has the power to compel ByteDance to provide user data and because it fears China could use the powerful TikTok algorithm to spread misinformation.
“TikTok’s collection of a wealth of sensitive data on 170 million Americans and their contacts makes it a powerful spying tool, and TikTok’s role as a key communications channel makes it a powerful weapon for operations secret influences,” wrote U.S. Attorney General Elizabeth Prelogar in a government brief in court.
The government argues that the law is not intended to restrict users’ free speech, but rather to end a foreign adversary’s control of TikTok.
How would the ban work?
THE a law would ban TikTok in the United States if ByteDance fails to divest its ownership of the app and sell it to a non-Chinese company by January 19.
This makes it illegal for anyone to “distribute, maintain, or update” the app in the United States and carries the threat of hefty fines of up to $5,000 per user against anyone who violates the law.
This means that it would not immediately affect anyone who had already downloaded TikTok, but app stores would no longer be allowed to offer TikTok in the United States and users would not be able to get upgrades or newer versions of the application.
Congress passed the bill last year with strong bipartisan support in the House and Senate, before President Joe Biden signed it.
The US House of Representatives has passed a bill that would result in a nationwide ban on TikTok if its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, does not sell it. The bill, however, risks encountering an obstacle in the Senate.
What will the Supreme Court case hinge on?
The case amounts to a conflict between two fundamental principles of American law: the First Amendment right to free speech and the government’s power to determine national security issues, said Gus Hurwitz, academic director of the Center for technology, innovation and competition at the University of Washington. Carey Law School of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.
Hurwitz said ByteDance’s position is that the intended effect of the law is to prevent the company from talking to Americans.
“The company is making a fairly simple, First Amendment-style argument here that it is a platform for speech and, in many ways, is no different than a newspaper or magazine or any other other website,” Hurwitz said in an interview with CBC News. .
Freddy Tran Nager, associate director of the digital social media program at the University of Southern California in Annenberg, said ByteDance’s argument was “a little thin.”
“This legislation does not ban TikTok based on its content,” Nager said in an interview. “Concerns are around data privacy, particularly for U.S. citizens.”
Can the US legally enforce a change of ownership on TikTok?
The United States has a long history of restricting foreign ownership of media outlets such as radio stations and television networks, but restricting ownership of a social media platform is a new frontier.
Kate Ruane, director of the Free Speech Project at the Center for Democracy and Technology in Washington, D.C., called the law unprecedented.
“Banning an entire speech platform in the United States is a constitutional violation of the highest order,” Ruane said in an interview.
“This prevents 170 million TikTok users from using the medium of their choice to communicate online in a way that has nothing to do with the concerns expressed by the government,” she said.
The ban could be avoided if ByteDance entered into negotiations to sell the app to a non-Chinese owner, but the company gave no indication of what would happen.
TikTok is suing the US government over a law that would ban the Chinese app unless it is sold to another company. Andrew Chang analyzes TikTok’s legal argument and explains why it claims its First Amendment rights are being violated.
What is the deadline for a decision?
The Supreme Court agreed to an expedited hearing on the case, given the law’s January 19 effective date.
“I expect that if the court sides with TikTok, we will hear it very quickly,” probably next week, Hurwitz said. “If an injunction is not immediately issued…I would interpret this silence to mean with very high confidence that the court will rule against TikTok.”
What will happen once Donald Trump takes office?
Trump’s inauguration will take place on January 20, a day after the ban is scheduled to take effect. After being in favor of banning TikTok during his first term, he is changing his tone. Trump now wants the law suspended and his lawyers have filed a lawsuit. “friend of the court” memory on his behalf before Friday’s hearing.
“President Trump opposes the ban on TikTok in the United States at this time and seeks to be able to resolve the issues at hand through political means once he takes office,” the brief states.
Nager said he suspects the new Trump administration “likes TikTok to be part of a broader set of negotiations.” [with China]whether it be customs duties, other imports or other military agreements.
Trump could issue an executive order that would delay implementation of the law, Hurwitz said, but added that in the long term, the new president is unlikely to exhaust his political capital trying to get the law repealed when so many Republican lawmakers are strongly opposed to China. application property.
Would Canada be affected?
The ban on distributing TikTok only applies to entities in the United States
Furthermore, the federal government in November ordered TikTok to cease commercial activities in Canada, but it does not restrict the availability of the application.
