
The future looks very bleak for TikTok in the US: the Supreme Court leans towards its ban
The future of TikTok in the United States (already bleak) became even darker after a hearing held last Friday in the Supreme Court in which the magistrates seemed to lean in favor of closing the social network from China beyond the seas.
During the hearing, a TikTok lawyer spent several hours trying to convince the judges (without much success) that the law approved last year by Congress (by virtue of which ByteDance, the parent company of the app, must divest from its business in the United States or, failing that, be forced to disappear from the application stores) undermines the social network’s right to freedom of expression.
The House of Representatives gave the green light to the rule, argued lawyer Noel Francisco, “out of fear that Americans, even if fully informed, could be persuaded by disinformation from China.” However, That possibility is something that “the First Amendment leaves in the hands of citizens.”asserted the lawyer.
However, The arguments put forward during the hearing by lawyer Noel Francisco did not seem to convince the judges of the Supreme Court, who emphasized that the law placed the ownership of TikTok in the spotlight and not the freedom of expression exercised there. “The rule specifically addresses a foreign corporation, ByteDance, which does not have rights related to the First Amendment,” emphasized liberal Justice Elena Kagan during the hearing.
According to Supreme Court justices, the law aimed at the disappearance of TikTok does not violate the First Amendment
In the eyes of the Supreme Court, and in line with the content of the norm approved last April by the United States Congress, TikTok’s alleged ties to Chinese executive pose a risk to national security (and the Government would therefore have legal authority to mitigate that risk). “In the United States there is, after all, a long tradition of preventing foreign ownership or control of the media,” added conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
When the law was passed in Congress last year, lawmakers emphasized that TikTok’s connection to China made the social network vulnerable to manipulation, propaganda and potentially spurious use of data held by the platform.
For their part, ByteDance and a number of First Amendment experts have fiercely criticized the rule in recent months, arguing that allowing For the Government to close such a large platform for freedom of expression such as TikTok, using as a pretext the vague threat it poses to national security, would set a very dangerous precedent.. For its part, the Government, which will change hands on January 20, has insisted that the law does not violate the First Amendmentas it allows TikTok to continue operating on US soil if it changes hands on the other side of the pond (something that ByteDance, however, flatly rules out).
In December, a federal appeals court unanimously ratified the provisions of the law.which gives TikTok until January 19, 2025 to change ownership and thus avoid its disappearance from application stores in the United States. “What the law pursues is China’s ability to covertly manipulate content through TikTok,” said a magistrate at the time. “In this sense, the Government’s justification for enforcing the rule is totally consistent with the precepts of the First Amendment,” that judge added.
During last Friday’s hearing, many of the Supreme Court justices held a very similar opinion. “This is not about forcing TikTok to be silent, as it can continue to operate with its own algorithm and according to its own precepts as long as it disassociates itself from ByteDance,” explained liberal magistrate Ketanji Brown Jackson.
Noel Francisco, TikTok’s lawyer, lamented, for his part, that Congress has not sought less restrictive means to address the risks posed by the law (and require, for example, the social network to disclose more clarify its alleged links with China). Francisco also stressed that the rule left out electronic commerce giants also from China such as Shein and Temu that collect and store a huge amount of data on American citizens.. To this statement, the judges responded that this shows that the Government’s main concern when approving the rule is the possibility that the speech is subject to possible manipulations on TikTok (and not on other platforms).
Many TikTok creators are already taking refuge in alternative platforms
The Supreme Court must now work against the clock to rule on whether the law is constitutional or not, since the rule requires ByteDance to divest from its subsidiary in the United States before January 19. The inauguration of Donald Trump, who will replace Joe Biden in the White House, will take place just one day later, on January 20. The future president of the United States has expressed on several occasions his intention to stop the ban on TikTok in the North American country, but his inauguration will occur when the future of the social network beyond the seas is already sealed (as long as the Court Supreme Court does not decide to postpone the application of the rule).
Meanwhile, and in view of the bleak future that awaits TikTok in the United States, Many creators on the social network are urging their “followers” to continue providing them with support on Instagram and YouTubewhich would be the platforms that would benefit the most from the “blackout” of the ByteDance subsidiary in the North American country.
In recent weeks, the popularity of another app attached to the ByteDance orbit has also skyrocketed in the United States: Lemon8. This social network is currently the second most downloaded free app in the Apple App Store in the United States. Many TikTokers based in the United States are already preparing for the imminent demise of TikTok in the North American country and that is why they are moving en masse to the “little sister” of the famous social network: Lemon8. By sharing the same parent company, TikTok accounts can be easily transferred to Lemon8 and the user also has the possibility of synchronizing both platforms and simultaneously publishing identical content on both social networks.
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