Will TikTok be banned in the US? Supreme Court to have final say
The United States Supreme Court has said it will hear arguments next month over the constitutionality of the federal law that could ban TikTok in the US if its Chinese parent company doesn't sell it.
The justices will hear arguments on January 10 about whether the law impermissibly restricts speech in violation of the First Amendment.
The law, enacted in April, set a January 19 deadline for TikTok to be sold or else face a ban in the United States.
The popular social media platform has more than 170 million users in the US and 23 million in the UK.
It's unclear how quickly a decision might come. But the high court still could act after the arguments to keep the law from taking effect pending a final ruling, if at least five of the nine justices think it's unconstitutional.
Lawyers China-based ByteDance and its parent company had urged the justices to step in before January 19.
The high court also will hear arguments from content creators who rely on the platform for income and some TikTok users.
The timing of the arguments means that the Justice Department of Joe Biden's outgoing administration will make the case in defence of the law that passed Congress with bipartisan support and was signed by the president in April.
The incoming Republican administration might not have the same view of the law.
President-elect Donald Trump, who once supported a ban but then pledged during the campaign to “save TikTok,” has said his administration would take a look at the situation.
Trump met with TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew at Trump's Mar-a-Lago club in Florida on Monday.
The companies have said that a shutdown lasting just a month would cause TikTok to lose about one-third of its daily users in the US and significant advertising revenue.
The case pits free speech rights against the government’s stated aims of protecting national security while raising novel issues about social media platforms.
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A panel of federal judges on the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit unanimously upheld the law on December 6, then denied an emergency plea to delay the law's implementation.
Without court action, the law would take effect January 19 and expose app stores that offer TikTok and internet hosting services that support it to potential fines.
It would be up to the Justice Department to enforce the law, investigating possible violations and seeking sanctions.
But lawyers for TikTok and ByteDance have argued that Trump’s Justice Department might pause enforcement or otherwise seek to mitigate the law’s most severe consequences.
Trump takes office a day after the law is supposed to go into effect.
Why does the US want to ban TikTok?
The United States has long worried the Chinese owners of TikTok, ByteDance, who are reportedly close to the ruling Communist Party, covertly collect data on its users.
TikTok and the Chinese government have repeatedly denied this is the case.
ByteDance has said it has never shared US user data with Chinese authorities and won’t do so if it is asked.
But the recent uptick in cyberattacks the US government has discovered both in its systems and against American companies has done little to ease Washington's fears.
China also has national security laws that compel organisations to assist with intelligence gathering.
The Biden administration found rare cross-party support for the law which would either see TikTok banned in the country or it forcibly sold.
The US is not alone in its suspicions around TikTok, with the UK government banning people from downloading the app on government-issued phones last year following similar policies by the EU, Canada and Australia.
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