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There is a Supreme Court defended The law that will ban TikTok on Sunday, January 19. a months-long legal battle Against a law that would have forced the ByteDance-owned app to shut down unless it divested from its US operations.
Starting Sunday, it will be illegal for app stores and web hosting services to distribute the social network. TikTok has warned that the app will just be “go dark” on Sunday, but it’s unclear what exactly will happen once the ban goes into effect.
In an opinion published a few minutes ago, the Supreme Court said it was writing in response to a petition by three groups of petitioners seeking the ban, “two TikTok operatives and a group of US TikTok users.” the new Protecting Americans from Foreign Enemy Controlled Applications Act – be fired on First Amendment grounds.
“Just a few days after oral argument for an opinion, I cannot acknowledge the arguments and convictions I wish to place before us,” the court wrote in an unsigned opinion. “All I can say is that at this time and under these constraints, the problem seems real and the answer to it is not unconstitutional… It is one thing to talk to and in favor of a foreign competitor. It’s another thing to allow a foreign enemy to spy on Americans.”
The decision comes a few days after TikTok filed his case with the highest court of the countryargued that the law violates the First Amendment and that the social network needed more time to allow President-elect Donald Trump to act to save the program.
During the hearing, the Department of Justice (DOJ) argued that the law did not violate the First Amendment because it was not intended to regulate free speech on the platform or its algorithm. The DOJ also alleged that the Chinese government could force ByteDance to secretly hand over the data of millions of Americans.
TikTok has argued throughout the legal battle that it would be impossible to strip the app of its US operations because China would block the export of the social network’s algorithm. The company also claimed that TikTok will be a fundamentally different service with a different algorithm.
Today, the Supreme Court acknowledges all this and more, summarizing the longer TikTok saga since 2020 in its opinion. But he also concluded that the law, as written, “seems well-tailored to the problem it purports to solve. Undoubtedly, the means chosen by the Congress and the President here is dramatic.”
However, the Supreme Court highlighted the difficulties of deciding on the technology in terms of both positive potential and harm.
“We must be careful not to embarrass the future,” said the court’s opinion today.
President Biden signed the “Sell or Ban” law as early as April 2024. The bill comes after years of allegations by the US government that TikTok’s ties to China pose a national security risk and expose sensitive information of Americans to the Chinese government.
More to come. Update for updates.
