Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
TikTok’s lawyer argued before the Supreme Court on Friday that a ban on the social network would violate TikTok and Americans’ First Amendment rights. This morning, the Supreme Court heard arguments over whether to overturn or delay a law that could effectively ban TikTok in the United States.
The draft lawOfficially titled the Protecting Americans from Foreign Enemies Controlled Applications Act, the document gives TikTok’s parent company ByteDance until January 19, 2025 to cease operations in the United States or face a ban in the country. Friday’s session comes just nine days before the sell-off or ban period.
TikTok’s lawyer, Noel Francisco, announced that the social network will essentially shut down on January 19 unless the Supreme Court intervenes. He also pointed to President-elect Donald Trump’s support for the program.
“Unless President Trump exercises his authority to extend it, the platform is closed,” Francisco said. “But he can’t do it on January 19. We still have President Biden on January 19th. On January 19th, as I understand it, we closed. Maybe on January 20, 21, 22, we can be in a different world. Again, I think that’s one of the reasons why I think it makes sense to make a preliminary ruling here and just give everybody a little bit of a breather.”
Francisco argued that TikTok’s “For You” algorithm should be protected by free-speech rights because it means the company is being editorially bullied for the content it publishes.
Asked whether the issue with the sell-or-ban law is a time limit for opting out of the social network, Francisco argued that opting out of the program would not be possible under any timeline. TikTok constantly claims that sales are impossible because China is blocking the export of its algorithm. Francisco also argued that TikTok would be a completely different service if it didn’t have access to global creative content.
In addition, Francisco argued that the new version of TikTok in the US with a new algorithm will prohibit any coordination with ByteDance’s global engineering team, and that the new version will have completely different content. Moreover, he claimed that it would take years to rebuild a new team of engineers and create a new version.
Attorney Jeffrey Fisher, who represents TikTok content creators, argued that the law also violates their rights and that they have the right to work with whatever publisher they want.
last month, The Supreme Court agreed to hear ByteDance and TikTok’s objection to the sale or ban law, Despite the concerns of the Ministry of Justice that the delay would pose a continuing threat to national security. A week after the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case, lawyers representing President-elect Donald Trump asked the court to suspend the law.
In a filing, Trump’s lawyers argued that the sale or ban, which came a day before his inauguration, was “unfortunately timed” and interfered with his “ability to conduct US foreign policy.”
While Trump led calls to ban the program during his first term, he took a different approach during the 2024 campaign, promising to save the program if elected.
President Biden signed April 2024 sale or ban law. 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.
If ByteDance fails to sell the platform by January 19, it will be illegal for app stores and web hosting services to distribute the social network.
