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The US Supreme Court decided on Wednesday to hear a bid by TikTok and its China-based parent company ByteDance to block a law designed to force the short-form video app to be sold by January 19 or face a ban on national security grounds.
The judges did not immediately act on an urgent request by TikTok and ByteDance, as well as some of its users who post content on the social media platform, for an injunction to stop the threatened ban, but instead decided to hear arguments on the matter on January 10.
The challengers are appealing a lower court ruling that upheld the law. About 170 million Americans use TikTok.
Congress passed the measure in April. The US Justice Department said that as a Chinese company, TikTok poses a “national security threat of immense depth and scale” because of its access to vast amounts of data about US users, from locations to private messages, and its ability to covertly manipulate the content Americans view on the app. TikTok has said it does not pose an immediate threat to US security.
On December 16, TikTok and ByteDance asked the Supreme Court to halt the law, which they said violates free speech protections under the First Amendment of the US Constitution.
On Wednesday, TikTok said it was pleased the court would address the issue. “We believe the court will declare TikTok’s ban unconstitutional so the more than 170 million Americans on our platform can continue to exercise their free speech rights,” the company said.
The companies said that shutting down TikTok for even a month would cause it to lose about a third of its US users and undermine its ability to attract advertisers and recruit content creators and talented employees.
On Dec. 6, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in Washington rejected the companies’ First Amendment arguments.
In their filing to the Supreme Court, TikTok and ByteDance said that “if Americans, duly informed of the alleged risks of ‘covert’ content manipulation, choose to continue viewing TikTok content with their eyes wide open, the First Amendment entrusts them with that choice, free from government censorship. “
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, in a brief filed with the Supreme Court on Wednesday, urged the court to reject any delay, comparing TikTok to a hardened criminal.
Trump has a ‘hot spot’ for TikTok
Banning TikTok in the US would make the company far less valuable to ByteDance and its investors, and would hurt companies that depend on TikTok to drive sales.
US President-elect Donald Trump, who unsuccessfully tried to ban TikTok during his first term in 2020, changed his stance and promised during the presidential race this year that he would try to save TikTok. On December 16, Trump said he had a “warm spot in his heart for TikTok” and would “take a look” at the issue.
Trump takes office on January 20, a day after TikTok’s statutory deadline.
In its decision, the DC Circuit wrote: “The First Amendment exists to protect free speech in the United States. Here, the government acted solely to protect that freedom from an adversary nation and limit that adversary’s ability to collect information about people in the United States.”
TikTok has denied that it has shared or will ever share the data of US users, accusing US lawmakers in a lawsuit of promoting speculative concerns, and has characterized the ban as “a radical departure from this country’s tradition of championing an open internet”.
The dispute comes amid rising trade tensions between the world’s two largest economies after President Joe Biden’s administration placed 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 from operating in Canada over national security concerns, but Canadians can still use the app. Government officials said the decision was made based on advice from Canada’s security and intelligence community.
The U.S. law would bar certain services to TikTok and other apps controlled by a foreign adversary, including those offered through app stores such as Apple and Alphabet’s Google, effectively preventing their continued use in the U.S. unless ByteDance divests TikTok by the deadline .
An unfettered ban could open the door to a future crackdown on other foreign-owned apps. In 2020, Trump also tried to ban WeChat, owned by the Chinese company Tencent, but was blocked by the courts.
Extinguishment 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 ordered the dissolution of TikTok’s Canadian operations following a national security review of the Chinese company behind the social media platform.
In response, TikTok filed documents in Federal Court in Vancouver this month challenging the federal government’s order to shut down its Canadian operations, arguing it would cut hundreds of jobs and could end a quarter of a million contracts it has with Canadian advertisers.
