FILE – The TikTok Inc. building is seen in Culver City, Calif., March 17, 2023. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)
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Damian Dovarganes/AP
The Supreme Court is stepping into the TikTok debate.
The high court agreed on Wednesday to decide whether a law banning the app next month, unless it is sold, is constitutional.
Congress passed the law in April after receiving classified briefings on the risk TikTok poses to Americans’ security. The law would force TikTok to shut down in the U.S., unless it is completely divested from its parent company, China-based ByteDance.
But TikTok has insisted that the Chinese government is not covertly manipulating the American public by exerting influence over the video-sharing app’s feed, as critics have insisted.
The court scheduled arguments for Jan. 10, which is nine days before the law is scheduled to go into effect. It would forbid TikTok from being carried in Google and Apple’s app stores and require web-hosting services to stop hosting the app.
Earlier this month, a federal appeals court affirmed the legality of the law, deeming it an appropriate way to address what lawmakers say is a national security threat. Lawyers for TikTok filed an emergency motion asking the Supreme Court to block the ban shortly after.
TikTik has argued that singling out the app represents an unprecedented suppression of the free speech of 170 million American users.
While there are bipartisan concerns about TikTok’s corporate parent company being based in Beijing, government officials have never cited a specific instance of the Chinese government using the app to collect data on Americans, or harnessing the service to spread disinformation.
Six legal scholars told NPR in May that forcing TikTok to be shut down over national security concerns that were unspecified represents a violation of the First Amendment.
Yet in affirming the law earlier this month, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said it was protecting free speech by preventing a foreign adversary from influencing what U.S. citizens view on the app.
While the legal outcome of the law will now be decided by the Supreme Court, President-elect Donald Trump has been sending mixed signals about his stance on the app.
Trump, who launched the first unsuccessful TikTok ban effort in his first term, has indicated that he now wants to “save” the app from a shutdown.
But in an interview recently with NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Trump did not answer directly when asked if he would rescue the app. Instead, he said he would “try and make it so that other companies don’t become an even bigger monopoly,” saying authorities in the U.S. should have “the right to ban it if you can prove that Chinese companies own it.”
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