TikTok warns of wider impact if supreme court approves ban

• Published On: 11 January 2025 at 20:23

TikTok's lawyer cautioned during Supreme Court arguments over a law that could force the app's sale or ban in the United States that such action against TikTok could set a precedent for other businesses.

The law, which sets a January 19 deadline for ByteDance to sell TikTok or face a national security ban, is being challenged by the companies, who claim it violates their First Amendment rights to free speech.

Noel Francisco, representing TikTok and ByteDance, argued that if the Supreme Court upholds this law, it may pave the way for similar statutes targeting other companies.

"AMC movie theatres were previously owned by a Chinese company. According to this theory, Congress could order AMC movie theatres to censor any movies it dislikes or to promote any movies it wants', Francisco told the justices.

During the arguments, the justices indicated that they were likely to uphold the law, despite some serious concerns about its impact on the First Amendment.

The law, which was passed last year with strong bipartisan support, targeted TikTok, which has approximately 170 million users in the United States, or roughly half of the total population. Lawmakers expressed concern about the Chinese government's possible use of TikTok for espionage and covert influence operations.

During the Supreme Court arguments, Jeffrey Fisher, the lawyer representing TikTok content creators who have also challenged the law, pointed out that Congress targeted TikTok with this measure while failing to address major Chinese online retailers such as Temu.

"Would a Congress (that is) really worried about these very dramatic risks leave out an e-commerce site like Temu that has 70 million Americans using it?" Fisher enquired. "It's very curious why you just single out TikTok alone and not other companies with tens of millions of people having their own data taken, you know, in the process of engaging with those websites and equally, if not more, available to Chinese control."

President Joe Biden signed the bill into law, and his administration is defending it in this matter.

The divestiture deadline comes one day before Republican Donald Trump, who opposes the ban, takes office as Biden's successor.

Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, who is representing the Biden administration in legal proceedings, emphasised the importance of the Jan. 19 deadline to compel ByteDance to proceed with the divestiture.

"Foreign adversaries do not willingly give up their control over this mass communications channel in the United States," Prelogar told the audience.

"When push comes to shove, and these restrictions go into effect, I believe it will fundamentally alter the landscape in terms of what ByteDance is willing to consider. And it might be just the jolt Congress needed to get the company to move forward with the divestiture process.

If the ban takes effect on January 19, Apple and Google will be unable to offer TikTok for download to new users, but existing users will be able to continue using the app.

Both the US government and TikTok agree that the app will degrade and eventually become unusable as the companies are unable to provide necessary support services.