US Supreme Court critical of TikTok arguments against looming ban

The video-sharing app TikTok is attempting to overturn a law that would require the app’s sale or be prohibited by January 19 in response to a lawsuit brought by the US Supreme Court.

Friday’s hearing is the latest in a legal saga that has pitted the US government against ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, in a battle over free speech and national security concerns.

ByteDance would have to sell its US shares by April to be banned or banned, according to the law that signed in question.

Legislators questioned the legitimacy of the bill’s strong bipartisan support, citing concerns that Chinese-based ByteDance might collect user data and deliver it to the Chinese government. In the end, Joe Biden, the outgoing US president, signed it into law.

But ByteDance and TikTok users have challenged the law’s constitutionality, arguing that banning the app would limit their free speech rights.

During Friday’s oral arguments, the Supreme Court seemed swayed by the government’s position that the app enables China’s government to spy on Americans and carry out covert influence operations.

Additionally, conservative justice Samuel Alito made the suggestion of issuing an administrative stay that would temporarily suspend the law while the court considers its course of action.

The Supreme Court’s decision to look into the case comes as the US and China, the two biggest economies in the world, continue to trade trade tensions.

President-elect Donald Trump, who is due to begin his second term a day after the ban kicks in, had promised to “save” the platform during his presidential campaign.

Since his first year in office, when he unsuccessfully attempted to ban TikTok, he has reversed.

Trump requested in December that the Supreme Court delay the law’s implementation so that his administration could pursue a “political resolution of the questions at issue in the case.”

The law, according to Noel Francisco, a lawyer for TikTok and ByteDance, could lead to the court’s attention.

“This act should not stand”, Francisco said. He dismissed the fear “that Americans, even if fully informed, could be persuaded by Chinese misinformation” as a “decision that the First Amendment leaves to the people”.

Francisco asked the justices to, at minimum, put a temporary hold on the law, “which will allow you to carefully consider this momentous issue and, for the reasons explained by the president-elect, potentially moot the case”.

‘ Weaponise TikTok ‘ to harm US

TikTok has about 170 million American users, about half the US population.

Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, arguing for the Biden administration, said that Chinese control of TikTok poses a grave threat to US national security.

The immense amount of data the app could collect on users and their contacts could give China a powerful tool for harassment, recruitment and espionage, she explained.

The United States could then be “could weaponize TikTok at any time.”

Prelogar continued, noting that the First Amendment does not enact laws to protect Americans and their data.

Several justices seemed receptive to those arguments during Friday’s hearing. Conservative Chief Justice John Roberts pressed TikTok’s lawyers on the company’s Chinese ownership.

Are we supposed to ignore the fact that the Chinese government’s ultimate parent is actually a spy agency agent? Roberts asked.

You appear to be ignoring the main concern of Congress, which was Chinese rigging and content acquisition and harvesting.

“Congress doesn’t care about what’s on TikTok”, Roberts added, appearing to brush aside free speech arguments.

Left-leaning Justice Elena Kagan also suggested that April’s TikTok law “is only targeted at this foreign corporation, which doesn’t have First Amendment rights”.

Users of TikTok, ByteDance, and the app had filed an appeal against a lower court’s decision, which upheld the law and rejected their claim that it violated the First Amendment’s free speech protections.

Source: Aljazeera