The Supreme Court will hear arguments Friday over the fate of TikTok, the wildly popular video app that Congress says poses an imminent threat to the nation's security.
Unless a judge intervenes by a Jan. 19 deadline set by federal law, the app must be sold or shut down.
The law, enacted in April with broad bipartisan support, states that TikTok's parent company ByteDance is effectively controlled by the Chinese government and uses the app to collect sensitive information about Americans. He said there was a need for urgent measures to be taken as it could potentially spread secret disinformation.
TikTok urged the court to strike down the law, arguing that it violates both First Amendment rights and the rights of its 170 million U.S. users.
The court is moving the case forward with unprecedented speed, with a decision expected by the end of next week. The decision will be one of the most consequential of the digital age, as TikTok has become a cultural phenomenon driven by sophisticated algorithms, providing entertainment and information about nearly every aspect of American life. .
“Americans use TikTok to communicate about everything from culture and sports to politics and law, commerce and humor,” the app's lawyers told the justices. “For example, people of different faiths are using TikTok to discuss their faith with others, and recovering alcoholics and people with rare diseases are forming support groups. Many people also use the platform to share videos about products, business, and travel.
The Supreme Court has repeatedly taken up cases regarding the application of free speech principles to big tech platforms, but has never issued a final ruling. It also challenged the application of the First Amendment to foreign speakers, ruling that foreign speakers generally do not have constitutional protections, at least when speaking abroad.
In early December, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit rejected a challenge to the law, ruling that national security concerns justified it. .
“The First Amendment exists to protect free speech in the United States,” Justice Douglas H. Ginsburg wrote in the majority opinion, joined by Justice Neomi Rao. “Here, the government acted solely to protect its freedoms from a foreign adversary and to limit that adversary's ability to collect data about people within the United States.”
In a concurring opinion, Chief Justice Shri Srinivasan acknowledged that the law's ban “could leave many Americans without access to a platform of expression, a source of community, and even a means of income.”
“Congress recognizes the grave national security threat and has determined that it is necessary to assume that risk,” he wrote. And we set it aside because this record reflects that Congressional decisions were taken into account, consistent with long-standing regulatory practices, and that there was no institutional purpose to suppress particular messages or ideas. I'm not in a position to put it there. ”
ByteDance said that more than half of the company is owned by global institutional investors and that the Chinese government has no direct or indirect ownership interest in TikTok or ByteDance.
The government's brief acknowledged that ByteDance is incorporated in the Cayman Islands, but said it is headquartered in Beijing and operates primarily from offices in China.
The legal deadline is one day before President-elect Donald J. Trump's inauguration. Last month, in an unusual brief nominally backed by neither political party, he asked a judge to temporarily block the law so he could address the issue after taking office.
“President Trump opposes banning TikTok in the United States at this time, and he wants to be able to resolve the immediate issue through political means once he takes office,” the brief said.
