Advertisement

We need your help now

Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.

You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.

If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.

Alamy Stock Photo

US Supreme Court poised to uphold ban on TikTok this month

The court’s justices appeared sceptical of arguments by a lawyer for TikTok.

THE US SUPREME Court appears on track to uphold a law that would force TikTok’s Chinese owner ByteDance to sell the popular video-sharing app or shut down its American operations.

A majority of the conservative and liberal justices on the nine-member court appeared sceptical of arguments by a lawyer for TikTok that forcing a sale was a violation of First Amendment free speech rights.

A law signed by President Joe Biden in April would block TikTok, which boasts 170 million American users, from US app stores and web hosting services unless ByteDance divests by 19 January.

The US government alleges TikTok allows China to collect data and spy on users and is a conduit to spread propaganda. China and ByteDance strongly deny the claims.

“This case ultimately boils down to speech,” TikTok counsel Noel Francisco said during two-and-a-half hours of oral arguments. “What we’re talking about is ideas. If the First Amendment means anything, it means that the government cannot restrict speech.”

Several of the justices pushed back, pointing to TikTok’s Chinese ownership.

“There’s a good reason for saying that a foreign government, particularly an adversary, does not have free speech rights in the United States,” said Justice Samuel Alito. “Why would it all change if it was simply hidden under some kind of contrived corporate structure?”

Justice Brett Kavanaugh and Chief Justice John Roberts raised the national security concerns behind the law, the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act.

“I think Congress and the president were concerned that China was accessing information about millions of Americans, tens of millions of Americans, including teenagers, people in their 20s,” Kavanaugh said.

Their concern, he added, was “that they would use that information over time to develop spies to turn people, to blackmail people, people who a generation from now will be working in the FBI or the CIA or in the State Department”.

Roberts asked the lawyer for TikTok whether the court is “supposed to ignore the fact that the ultimate parent is, in fact, subject to doing intelligence work for the Chinese government?”

Francisco said Congress could have chosen other means to address its concerns such as requiring data from TikTok’s US users not be allowed to be shared with anybody.

“They never even considered that most obvious alternative” of saying “you can’t give it to ByteDance, you can’t give it to China, you can’t give it to Google, you can’t give it to Amazon,” he said.

Francisco was asked what happens after 19 January if ByteDance declines to sell TikTok.

“We go dark,” he said. “Essentially the platform shuts down.”

Justice Amy Coney Barrett took issue with Francisco’s characterization.

“You keep saying shut down,” Barrett said. “The law doesn’t say TikTok has to shut down. It says ByteDance has to divest. If ByteDance divested TikTok, we wouldn’t be here, right?”

Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, representing the Biden administration, also raised national security concerns, calling Chinese government control of TikTok a “grave threat”.

“The Chinese government could weaponize TikTok at any time to harm the United States,” Prelogar said. “There is no protected First Amendment right for a foreign adversary to exploit its control over a speech platform.”

The potential ban could strain US-China relations just as Donald Trump prepares to be sworn in as president on 20 January.

Trump, who has 14.7 million followers on TikTok, has emerged as an unlikely ally of the platform in a reversal from his first term, when he himself tried to ban the app.

Trump’s lawyer, John Sauer, filed a brief with the Supreme Court last month asking it to pause the law, “thus permitting President Trump’s incoming Administration the opportunity to pursue a political resolution of the questions at issue in the case”.

In an 11th hour development on Thursday, US billionaire Frank McCourt announced that he had put together a consortium to acquire TikTok’s US assets from ByteDance.

“We look forward to working with ByteDance, President-elect Trump, and the incoming administration to get this deal done,” McCourt said.

© AFP 2025

Author
View 24 comments
Close
24 Comments
This is YOUR comments community. Stay civil, stay constructive, stay on topic. Please familiarise yourself with our comments policy here before taking part.
Leave a Comment
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute John doe
    Favourite John doe
    Report
    Jan 11th 2025, 11:11 AM

    The EU should ban the X platform before musk poisons our democracy further

    35
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Tim Brennan
    Favourite Tim Brennan
    Report
    Jan 11th 2025, 11:05 PM

    @John doe: absolutely

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Brian Dennehy
    Favourite Brian Dennehy
    Report
    Jan 11th 2025, 9:42 AM

    So Trump allows the sale to American billionaires and we only see what they want us to see. This sounds like fun

    27
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute REAL kevvy kerr
    Favourite REAL kevvy kerr
    Report
    Jan 11th 2025, 7:28 AM

    That Frank Mc Court did well for himself after “Angela’s Ashes”

    17
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Andy Preneur
    Favourite Andy Preneur
    Report
    Jan 11th 2025, 9:44 AM

    No comment from Elon?

    8
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Kieran Menon
    Favourite Kieran Menon
    Report
    Jan 11th 2025, 8:44 AM

    It’s just going to get replaced by the next thing…

    Remember Vine?

    6
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute tony hilton
    Favourite tony hilton
    Report
    Jan 11th 2025, 1:51 PM

    @Kieran Menon: can’t remember much from all that red vine last night

    4
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Trump24
    Favourite Trump24
    Report
    Jan 11th 2025, 10:25 AM

    Very smart move by the US

    5
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Colonel Gaddafi
    Favourite Colonel Gaddafi
    Report
    Jan 11th 2025, 7:44 AM

    Always crazy dancing on tiki tok i love it

    2
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Colonel Gaddafi
    Favourite Colonel Gaddafi
    Report
    Jan 11th 2025, 3:17 PM

    @Enoch Kochwomble: no gay here

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute William Jennings
    Favourite William Jennings
    Report
    Jan 11th 2025, 8:05 PM

    Well done to the US Supreme Court for making the right decision. TikTok is nothing more than Chinese spyware masquerading as an app. They deliberately censor any content that’s critical of the CCP or Xi Jinping and push anti-West propaganda onto young Western users. Chinese TikTok users are only allowed to be shown educational content and nothing else. TikTok provides nothing of value to America and they were simply asked to buy back the shares in the company that the CCP owns but they refused. It’s time we banned it here in Europe as well.

    1
Submit a report
Please help us understand how this comment violates our community guidelines.
Thank you for the feedback
Your feedback has been sent to our team for review.

Leave a commentcancel

 
JournalTv
News in 60 seconds