TikTok warns of wider consequences if US Supreme Court allows ban: report

Lawyers for TikTok and its Chinese parent company ByteDance have issued a warning as the Supreme Court debates a law that would force sales or ban the short-video app in the U.S.: If Congress can do that to TikTok, it could also tighten Following other companies.

The law, which was argued before nine judges on Friday, stipulates that ByteDance must sell the popular social media platform by January 19 or face a national security ban.

The companies are seeking at least a delay in the law, which they say violates First Amendment protections against government restrictions on free speech.

Noel Francisco, representing TikTok and ByteDance, argued that the Supreme Court’s endorsement of the law could lead to regulations targeting other companies on similar grounds.

“AMC Theaters was once owned by a Chinese company. Under this theory, Congress could order AMC Theaters to censor any film Congress did not like or promote any film Congress wanted,” Francisco told the judge.

The justices signaled through questions during arguments that they were leaning toward upholding the law, even as some expressed serious concerns about its First Amendment implications.

TikTok is a platform used by about 170 million people in the United States, about half of the country’s population. Congress passed the measure last year with overwhelming bipartisan support, with lawmakers citing the risk of the Chinese government using TikTok to spy on Americans and conduct covert influence operations.

Jeffrey Fisher, a lawyer representing TikTok content creators, has also challenged the law, arguing during Supreme Court arguments that Congress was taking the measure to focus on TikTok and not include Temu. Major Chinese online retailers including.

“Is Congress really worried about these huge risks and ignoring an e-commerce site like Temu that is used by 70 million Americans?” Fisher asked. “It’s very strange why you’re only singling out TikTok and not other companies with tens of millions of users whose own data has been stolen in the process of interacting with these sites and which is equally (if not more) likely For China to control.”

Democratic President Joe Biden signed the measure into law and his administration is defending the case. The divestment deadline comes just one day before Donald Trump, a Republican who has opposed the ban, takes office as Biden’s successor.

Deputy Attorney General Elizabeth Prelogar, who defended the Biden administration, said the bill must take effect as scheduled on January 19 to force ByteDance to take divestment action. “Foreign adversaries are unwilling to relinquish control of this mass communication channel in the United States,” Preloga said.

“When push comes to shove and these restrictions take effect, I think that will fundamentally change the landscape of what ByteDance is willing to consider. This may just be the jolt that Congress expects the company to need to actually move forward with the divestiture process,” Preloga said .

If the ban takes effect on January 19, Apple and Alphabet’s Google will no longer be able to offer TikTok downloads to new users, but existing users will still be able to access the app. The U.S. government and TikTok agree that over time, the app will degrade and eventually become unusable because the company will be unable to provide support services.

The Supreme Court also debated whether the likelihood of TikTok being used by China for covert influence operations or propaganda purposes was enough to justify banning it. “Look, everyone manipulates content,” Francisco told the court. “A lot of people think CNN, Fox News, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times are manipulating their content.

This is protected core speech. “On December 27, Trump urged the court to postpone the January 19 deadline to give his incoming administration “an opportunity to seek a political solution to the issues in this case.” Under the law, the US president has the power to set aside January 19 The deadline on the 19th was extended by 90 days, but this does not seem to apply to the current situation where ByteDance has no obvious efforts to sell TikTok’s US assets.

The law requires the president to certify through a binding legal agreement that significant progress has been made on the sale. In any case, Trump won’t become president until after the deadline — though Francisco said “we’ll probably be in a different world” once Trump returns to the White House. Justice Brett Kavanaugh asked Preloga if the president could “say we’re not going to enforce this law?”

“I think generally speaking, the president certainly has enforcement discretion,” Preloga said. “That’s one of the reasons why I think it’s completely reasonable to issue a preliminary injunction here and give everyone a little bit of breathing room,” Francisco said.