TikTok has become the center of a massive political debate, and the app is now endangered in the United States. A law to ban TikTok passed in Congress last year, and was signed by President Biden. TikTok parent company, ByteDance, appealed the decision on the grounds that this law violated users’ First Amendment free speech. On Friday, the Supreme Court ruled against ByteDance and upheld the new law in a 9-0 decision.
“There is no doubt that, for more than 170 million Americans, TikTok offers a distinctive and expansive outlet for expression, means of engagement and source of community,” the court said in the publicly available opinion, which was not signed to any particular Supreme Court justice. “But Congress has determined that divestiture is necessary to address its well-supported national security concerns regarding TikTok’s data collection practices and relationship with a foreign adversary.”
Much of the conversation around the current ban centers around the private data that TikTok collects, which is accessible by ByteDance, a Chinese company. While American companies collect similar amounts of personal data from their users, the fact that China is a “foreign adversary” has pushed much of the controversy around the app.
The opinion makes this distinction clearer by citing the fact that ByteDance is “subject to Chinese laws that require it to ‘assist or cooperate’ with the Chinese Government’s ‘intelligence work’ and to ensure that the Chinese Government has ‘the power to access and control private data’ the company holds.”
Due to the current transition between administrations, it’s not entirely clear what the fate of TikTok is. It’s still possible for ByteDance to avoid the ban if TikTok is divested from the company, and sold to another company that doesn’t run fowl of Congress’ national security concerns.
Many users are anticipating that the service will shut down entirely on Sunday in compliance with the ban. Some creators, like Scott Christian Sava, are saying a potential goodbye to TikTok with series like “Painting TikTok friends.” Others are posting their own goodbyes to TikTok, mentioning the things they enjoyed about using the platform. RedNote, a Chinese social media app that combines elements of TikTok and Instagram, has seen a surge of new users looking for a replacement.
President-Elect Trump posted about the ban on Truth Social, writing: “The Supreme Court decision was expected, and everyone must respect it. My decision on TikTok will be made in the not too distant future, but I must have time to review the situation. Stay tuned!”
Source：https://www.polygon.com/culture/510690/tiktok-ban-upheld-supreme-court-us
