The Supreme Court will hear arguments Friday on the fate of TikTok, the wildly popular video app that Congress says poses a looming threat to the nation’s security.
Unless judges intervene before a January 19 deadline set by federal law, the app must be sold or shut down.
The law, enacted in April with broad bipartisan support, said urgent action was needed because TikTok’s corporate parent, ByteDance, is effectively controlled by the Chinese government, which could use the app to collect sensitive information about Americans and spreading hidden disinformation.
Saying the law violates both First Amendment rights and the rights of its 170 million American users, TikTok urged the court to strike down the law.
The court has put the case on an extremely fast track and is likely to rule by the end of next week. His decision will be among the most consequential of the digital age, as TikTok has become a cultural phenomenon fueled by a sophisticated algorithm that provides entertainment and information that touches almost every aspect of American life.
“Americans use TikTok to communicate about all kinds of topics — from culture and sports, to politics and law, to commerce and humor,” the app’s lawyers told the judges. “For example, people of different faiths use TikTok to discuss their beliefs with others. Recovering alcoholics and people with rare diseases form support groups. Many also use the platform to share videos about products, business and travel.”
The Supreme Court has repeatedly taken up cases about the application of free speech principles to giant tech platforms, though it has not issued definitive rulings. He has also struggled with the application of the First Amendment to foreign speakers, holding that it is generally without constitutional protection, at least for speech delivered abroad.
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in early December rejected a challenge to the law, ruling it was justified by national security concerns.
“The First Amendment exists to protect free speech in the United States,” wrote Justice Douglas H. Ginsburg for the majority, joined by Justice Neomi Rao. “Here the government acted solely to protect that freedom from a foreign adversary nation and to limit that adversary’s ability to collect data about people in the United States.”
In a concurring opinion, Chief Justice Sri Srinivasan acknowledged that under the law’s ban, “many Americans may lose access to a medium of expression, a source of community and even a means of income.”
“Congress deemed it necessary to take this risk,” he wrote, “given the grave threats to national security it perceived. And because the record reflects that Congress’s decision was considered, consistent with longstanding regulatory practice, and lacking a statutory purpose to suppress particular messages or ideas, we are unable to set it aside.”
ByteDance said more than half of the company is owned by global institutional investors and that the Chinese government has no direct or indirect ownership stake in TikTok or ByteDance.
The government document acknowledged that ByteDance is incorporated in the Cayman Islands, but said it is headquartered in Beijing and operates primarily from offices in China.
The deadline set by the law falls one day before the inauguration of President-elect Donald J. Trump. In an unusual brief last month, nominally to support neither party, he asked the justices to temporarily block the law so he could take up the issue once he takes office.
“President Trump opposes a ban on TikTok in the United States at this time,” the brief said, “and seeks the ability to resolve the issues it faces through political means once he takes office.”
