Can We undo the limbo of TikTok? A high-serial court ruling against the federal divestiture ban
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TikTok’s seemingly nonstop legal limbo has sown widespread confusion among users over when and if the app will indeed stop working one day. The federal ban was affirmed by the country’s highest court.
Someone who worked on Project Texas recently told me that undoing the project is going to be a very large effort. TikTok can only shut the app down if it is removed from the US app stores. How this would affect the experience of using TikTok outside of the US is not clear. It is a very unusual situation.
“For 170 million Americans, TikTok is a great source of community, expression, and means of engagement.” 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,” the court wrote in an unsigned opinion. “We conclude that the challenged provisions do not violate petitioners’ First Amendment rights.”
TikTok contested the ban in court, arguing that it violates the free speech rights of both users and the company — an appeal that it took all the way to the Supreme Court, which heard the case on Jan. 10.
Tik Tok ban, threatening app’s existence in the U.S.: Supreme Court upholds it as a remedy for problematic speech
The decision in 2000 is seen as a one-off and not meant to have greater precedential value. “But this will be a very important decision,” he said. “And it gives enormous power to Congress to act on data privacy questions.”
“Do we assume that counter speech is the best remedy for problematic speech?” asked Watt, referring to the idea that some of the content could be manipulated by China.
U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, representing the federal government, quickly shot that down with this analogy: “Imagine if you walked into a store and I had a sign that said one of 1 million products in this store causes cancer,” she told the court. “That is not going to put you on notice about what product is actually jeopardizing your health.”
The incoming administration will have to implement the law following Friday’s Supreme Court ruling, according to a Biden White House press secretary. The administration knows that the actions to implement the law have to fall to the next administration, she said.
All eyes are now on President-elect Donald Trump. He asked the Supreme Court to delay its ruling to give his administration more time to come up with a solution that would resolve national security concerns.
It is possible for the President to delay the ban for 90 days if progress is made towards a sale away from ByteDance.
On Friday, Trump posted on his social media platform that he has not made a decision yet. Everyone has to respect the Supreme Court decision. My decision on TikTok will be made in the not too distant future, but I must have time to review the situation. Stay updated!
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“When push comes to shove and these restrictions take effect, I think it will fundamentally change the landscape with respect to what ByteDance is willing to consider, and it might be just the jolt that Congress expected the company would need to actually move forward with the divestiture process,” she said.
In a discussion about Trump’s TikTok views, Chew is speaking his language. The incoming president, who is known for keeping a close watch on his TV ratings, declared a warm spot for the platform after seeing how the platform played a role in his campaign. It’s TikTok’s most public attempt to butter Trump up before he takes over the Oval Office on Monday (one day after the ban takes effect), but Chew has already visited him at Mar-a-Lago and plans to attend his inauguration, along with several other tech CEOs.
The justice department officials made strange statements after the ruling. Attorney General Merrick Garland praised the Supreme Court for letting the Justice Department “prevent the Chinese government from weaponizing TikTok to undermine America’s national security.” The deputy attorney general said that the next phase of the effort would be to ensure compliance after the law goes into effect.
A flurry of articles this week claimed that Chinese officials are at least beginning to think of the idea of selling the app, and possibly even hiring Elon Musk to buy it or help broker a deal. So far, we have not heard of a sale from the Chinese government or ByteDance, which is where the reports came from.
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TikTok has reportedly planned to go dark on Sunday, should the law take effect, regardless of what actions other companies take. In the end TikTok might end up being the only party still committed to the ban deadline.
The remedy congress and the president chose is dramatic, according to Justice Neil Gorsuch. “Whether this law will succeed in achieving its ends, I do not know. A determined foreign adversary may just seek to replace one lost surveillance application with another. Less dramatic and more effective solutions may emerge as threats evolve.
The opinion states that the Act doesn’t seem to regulate protected activity or conduct with an expression component. The divestiture requirements are what regulates Bytedance and TikTok.
