The Supreme Court appeared poised on Friday to uphold a law that would force the sale or ban of the short-form video app TikTok in the United States starting Jan. 19, as justices focused on concerns over a potential security threat. national.
The social platform says the law violates the First Amendment and should be struck down, reports A2.
ByteDance, which owns TikTok, is headquartered in China, and the United States government says it poses a potential national security threat. US officials say Chinese authorities could force TikTok to hand over sensitive data on the very large number of Americans who use the platform or could affect the distribution of information on the platform.
An appeals court upheld the law, which bans TikTok unless it is sold.
The law goes into effect on January 19, the day before President-elect Donald Trump, who has 14.7 million followers on the platform, takes office. The Republican leader says he wants to "save TikTok."
During the hearing, which lasted about two and a half hours, the nine members of the Supreme Court asked lawyers representing the platform TikTok, the Chinese company ByteDance, which owns TikTok, and users of the app about the risk that the government China's use of the platform to spy on Americans and conduct covert influence operations, while they also examined concerns about freedom of speech.
Some justices raised concerns about the law's impact on free speech, but their concern seemed to focus on the national security implications of a foreign-owned social media platform collecting data from 170 million American users, about half of the population of the United States.
Conservative Judge Brett Kavanaugh asked Tik Tok and ByteDance lawyer Noel Francisco about the potential long-term risks of China collecting data on users, especially those who started using the app at a young age, and the risks it could use "that information, over time to spy on, or blackmail people, individuals who might work in the future at the FBI or the CIA or the State Department."
Lawyer Francisco called the app one of the most popular platforms where Americans exercise their freedom of speech and added that Tik-Tok would essentially shut down on January 19 without being sold.
Conservative Justice Samuel Alito later floated the possibility of the court placing what's called an administrative stay that would temporarily suspend the law while the justices decide how to proceed.
When does the Supreme Court take the decision?
Supreme Court members will rule after arguments on Friday, a quick decision based on the court's standards.
The court, which is made up of a conservative majority, may signal which way it is leaning during oral arguments.
TikTok's lawyers urged members of the Supreme Court to intervene before the law goes into effect, saying that an outage of even a month would cause the app to lose about a third of its US users per day and hurt advertising revenue.
The court can block the law from entering into force even before announcing its final decision if at least five of the nine justices think it is unconstitutional.
Not for now, but the app, which posts short videos of users sharing with the public, could be banned in less than two weeks if the Supreme Court upholds the law.
Congress passed the law with bipartisan support, and Democratic President Joe Biden signed it into law in April.
TikTok's lawyers challenged the law in court, where they sided with app users and content creators who say a ban on the platform would upend their livelihoods. TikTok representatives say the national security concerns are based on inaccurate and hypothetical information.
But an appeals court panel, made up of judges appointed by Republican and Democratic presidents, unanimously decided to uphold the law.
What has President-elect Trump declared on this issue?
The law takes effect on Jan. 19, the day before Mr. Trump begins his term as president.
He took the unusual step of filing court papers asking the Supreme Court to suspend the law so he can negotiate a deal to sell TikTok once he takes office. His stance is the latest example of how he is getting involved in national affairs before starting his mandate. His stance has also changed since his last presidential term, when he wanted to stop it.
ByteDance, which owns TikTok, has said in the past that it has no plans to sell the platform. Mr Trump met with TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew at his Mar-a-lago, Florida estate last month.
Who else is involved in the debate?
Free speech groups, such as the ACLU and the Electronic Front Foundation, are urging the court to block the law, saying the government has not provided substantial evidence of the harm TikTok causes and that the ban would cause "problems of extraordinary" in American life.
On the other hand, Senator Mitch McConnell, the former Republican leader in the Senate, and a group of 22 states have submitted letters in support of the ban, arguing that the law protects freedom of expression by preserving Americans' data and preventing the possible manipulation of information that found on this platform by the Chinese authorities./ Voice of America (A2 Televizion)
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