US Supreme Court rules against TikTok, maintains ban

The US Supreme Court on Friday ruled against TikTok in a challenge to a federal law that would have required the popular short-video app to be sold by its Chinese parent company ByteDance or be banned in the United States on January 19.

The judges ruled that the law, passed by an overwhelming bipartisan majority in Congress last year and signed by Democratic President Joe Biden, does not violate the US Constitution’s First Amendment protection against government abuses of free speech. The judges overturned a lower court ruling that had upheld the measure after it was challenged by TikTok, ByteDance and some of the app’s users.

The Supreme Court acted swiftly in the case and held arguments on January 10, just nine days before the deadline set under law. The case pitted free speech rights against national security concerns in the age of social media.

TikTok is one of the most prominent social media platforms in the United States, used by approximately 270 million Americans – nearly half the country’s population, including many young people. TikTok’s powerful algorithm, its core asset, feeds individual users short videos tailored to their preferences. The platform offers a vast collection of user-submitted videos, often less than a minute long, which can be viewed through a smart phone app or over the internet.

China and the United States are economic and geopolitical rivals, and Chinese ownership of TikTok for years has raised concerns among American leaders. The TikTok fight comes during the final days of Biden’s presidency — Republican Donald Trump succeeded him on Monday — and at a time of rising trade tensions between the world’s two largest economies.

The Biden administration has said the law targets control of the app by a foreign competitor, not protected speech, and that TikTok could continue to operate the same way if it is freed from China’s control.

During arguments in the case, Justice Department attorney Elizabeth Preloger said that the Chinese government’s control over TikTok is a “serious threat” to U.S. national security, citing China’s ability to collect large amounts of sensitive data on Americans and engage in covert influence campaigns. trying to. Prelogger said China forces companies like ByteDance to secretly hand over social media users’ data and follow instructions from the Chinese government.

TikTok’s massive data set represents a powerful tool that the Chinese government can use for harassment, recruitment, and spying, Preloger said, and China “could weaponize TikTok at any time to harm the United States.” Is.”

This law was passed last April. The Biden administration defended it in court. TikTok and ByteDance, as well as some users who post content on the app, challenged the measure and appealed to the Supreme Court, losing on December 6 in the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

Trump’s opposition to the ban represents a reversal from his stance from his first term in office when he aimed to ban TikTok. Trump has said that “I have a warm place in my heart for TikTok,” believing that the app helped him with young voters in the 2024 election.

In December, Trump asked the Supreme Court to put the legislation on hold to give his incoming administration “the opportunity to pursue a political resolution of the issues in the case.” But while Trump has vowed to “save” TikTok, many of his Republican allies have supported a ban.

Trump’s incoming national security adviser Mike Waltz said on Thursday that the new administration would keep TikTok alive in the United States if a viable agreement is reached. Waltz said the incoming administration would “take measures to protect TikTok from going dark” and cited a provision in the law that allows for a 90-day extension if “significant progress” is made toward divestment.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said Thursday that TikTok should be given more time to find a U.S. buyer and that he would work with the Trump administration “to keep TikTok alive while protecting our national security.”

TikTok CEO Shaw Zi Chew will attend Trump’s inauguration on Monday and will sit among other high-profile invitees.

TikTok has said the law threatens the First Amendment rights of not only it and its users, but all Americans. TikTok has said the ban will impact its user base, advertisers, content creators and employee talent. TikTok has 7,000 US employees.

Noel Francisco, a lawyer for TikTok and ByteDance, told the Supreme Court that the app is “one of America’s most popular speech platforms” and said the law would “go dark” unless ByteDance executes a qualified divestiture. May need it.

People familiar with the matter told Reuters on Wednesday that TikTok planned to shut down the app’s US operations on Sunday, barring a last-minute reprieve.

Francisco said the U.S. government’s real target with this law is free speech — specifically the fear that Americans “might be persuaded by Chinese misinformation.” But the First Amendment leaves that up to the people of the United States, not the government, Francisco said.

The law bans TikTok and other foreign antitrust-controlled apps from providing certain services, including offering it through app stores like those of Apple and Alphabet’s Google, effectively preventing its continued U.S. use absent divestment. Is.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

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