Outside the US Supreme Court in Washington DC
For more than 2 hours at the court hearing in Washington DC on January 10 (local time), US Supreme Court judges seemed skeptical about the authenticity of TikTok’s arguments when the company said that the law was approved by the country’s Congress. passed eight months ago violates the First Amendment of the US Constitution on freedom of speech, Reuters reported on January 11.
The following is the process of the US developing the law and TikTok’s legal battle in the US:
The Act plays a core role in the case
TikTok’s legal battle stems from a law passed by the US Congress in April 2024.
Called the Protecting Americans from Applications Controlled by Foreign Adversaries Act, the bill states that third-party service providers such as Google or Apple are prohibited from “distributing, maintaining, or updating” an application. application controlled by a foreign competitor.
That means providing such applications on Google or Apple’s app stores will be considered illegal.
According to the law, any application operated by ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company based in Beijing (China), or its subsidiaries, is considered an “application controlled by a foreign competitor”. .
The scope of law enforcement also includes applications from a “front company” of a foreign adversary, which according to the US are names like China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran.
The law will be applied 270 days after its approval, taking effect from January 19. However, TikTok can still operate in the US after this date if it “escapes” ByteDance’s control.
In case an American company acquires a foreign competitor’s application, the current President can extend the official implementation deadline for another 90 days to facilitate the transfer.
Debate between parties
The US Department of Justice represented the government in briefly presenting its arguments to the Supreme Court. Accordingly, Washington believes that the huge amount of information that TikTok collects about American users could be used by the Chinese government for “espionage or blackmail” purposes, or to “promote political interests” through through actions that spread false information and incite discord within the United States at a time of crisis.
“To respond to the above dangerous national security threats, the US Congress has not imposed any restrictions on freedom of speech, let alone views or content. Instead That is, Congress only limited the control of foreign competitors: TikTok could continue to operate in the US and present the same content from established users in the same way, if the current owner carry out a divestment to free the platform from China’s control Nation”, CBS News quoted the content of the Ministry of Justice’s presentation.
The TikTok application attracts about 170 million regular users in the US
Meanwhile, lawyers representing TikTok argued that closing the app in the US would affect 170 million regular users in the country. The lawyer called the action to take down TikTok “unprecedented” and accused the US government of declaring war on the First Amendment, which regulates freedom of speech.
TikTok also denied the possibility of leaving ByteDance, and the parent company in China confirmed in April 2024 that it would not sell the platform.
A group of eight TikTok users in the US also filed a lawsuit against the law and also cited the First Amendment as the basis for their argument.
However, the federal appeals court in December 2024 rejected the above argument of TikTok and the user group. Specifically, the panel of judges of the DC Court of Appeals agreed with the government’s argument that TikTok poses a risk to US national security. The court also rejected TikTok’s request to postpone the ban during the appeal process to the Supreme Court.
CBS News quoted constitutional law expert Thomas Berry of the Cato Institute (headquarters in California, USA) calling the Supreme Court’s support for the government restricting a popular platform unprecedented in American history. However, if it really happens, the Supreme Court also has reason to do so.
Mr. Trump moved to oppose banning TikTok
Initially, President-elect Donald Trump in 2020 sought to ban TikTok and ByteDance was forced to sell the application to the US citing national security concerns. However, things turned around during the 2024 presidential campaign, after he first opened an account on TikTok.
In a recent move, Mr. Trump’s lawyers submitted a petition to the Supreme Court at the end of last year asking the court to consider extending the deadline after January 19 to give Mr. Trump time to consider a solution. treatment for the incident, according to Reuters.
Mr. Trump recently received TikTok leaders at Mar-a-Lago resort (Florida) and attributed the platform to helping him win the votes of young voters on election day November 5, 2024.
While Mr. Trump wants to find a solution for TikTok, some members of the upcoming administration support banning TikTok, including candidate for Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the person chosen to be national security advisor Mike Waltz. .
Leaders of the China Committee in the US House of Representatives and Republican Senator Mitch McConnell also sent a petition to the Supreme Court urging implementation of the new law.
