US TikTok ban: Supreme Court considers appeal

WASHINGTON: The court heard arguments on Friday, with a verdict expected more quickly than the typical period of deliberations that can last months. The platform and its US users argued the law violated the First Amendment.

The US Supreme Court heard arguments on Friday over whether to accept the appeal of social media platform TikTok against a law which could see the platform shut down if Chinese owner ByteDance does not sell it to a US owner.

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The law was passed by Congress and ratified by outgoing President Joe Biden last year, citing national security concerns. Such concerns were reiterated by a majority of the justices on the nine-member bench during the hearing.

What happened during the hearing?

Several justices echoed during the two-and-a-half hours of oral arguments US government concerns that Beijing could use TikTok to collect critical data on its 170 million US users, many of whom are currently in their adolescence or early 20s.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh repeated the administration’s concerns “that they [China] would use that information over time to develop spies to turn people, to blackmail people, people who a generation from now will be working in the FBI or the CIA or in the State Department.”

Chief Justice John Roberts, meanwhile, asked the lawyer representing TikTok, Noel Francisco, whether the court is “supposed to ignore the fact that the ultimate parent is, in fact, subject to doing intelligence work for the Chinese government?”

Francisco argued that the law violates the First Amendment free speech rights.

“This case ultimately boils down to speech,” Francisco said. “What we’re talking about is ideas. If the First Amendment means anything, it means that the government cannot restrict speech.”

Several of the justices challenged this accusation.

“There’s a good reason for saying that a foreign government, particularly an adversary, does not have free speech rights in the United States,” said Justice Samuel Alito. “Why would it all change if it was simply hidden under some kind of contrived corporate structure?”

What happens next?

The court is expected to reach a decision before January 19, the deadline the law has given TikTok. This would be an unusually rapid turnaround for the Supreme Court. Should ByteDance fail to sell before the deadline, Francisco said the popular platform would “go dark.”

President-elect Donald Trump, who will be inaugurated on January 20, has unexpectedly come to the platform’s support, despite efforts to shut it down during his first term in office.

Trump has asked the court to postpone its decision to give him time to reach a “political resolution” regarding the platform, where he has 14.7 million followers.

Meanwhile, US billionaire Frank McCourt said on Thursday that he had put together a consortium to acquire the platform’s US assets.

“We look forward to working with ByteDance, President-elect Trump, and the incoming administration to get this deal done,” McCourt said.