Reuters on January 11 reported that Mr. Noel Francisco, representative of TikTok and ByteDance, argued that the US Supreme Court upholding the ban on TikTok could create a precedent that other companies in the future could be banned for future reasons. on one’s own.
“AMC Theaters (an American company) was once owned by a Chinese company. Based on the above theory, the US Congress can ask AMC to censor any movie that Congress does not like. , or promote the broadcasting of movies that Congress wants,” Mr. Francisco raised the issue at the debate session at the Supreme Court on January 10.
A person livestreamed in front of the US Supreme Court headquarters on January 10
The US Congress passed a law banning TikTok in April 2024, when US lawmakers cited the risk of the Chinese government taking advantage of TikTok to spy on Americans and carry out secret activities to exert influence.
Mr. Jeffrey Fisher, a lawyer representing content creators on TikTok, said during the debate that the US Congress is applying the above reasons focusing on TikTok but ignoring online retail companies. China’s leading company such as Temu.
“Is Congress really so worried about the serious risks that it would ignore an e-commerce site like Temu, which is used by 70 million Americans?” Mr. Fisher said. “It’s strange that Just mentioning TikTok alone without mentioning other companies, there are also tens of millions of users whose data is collected during interactions with those websites and can also be controlled by China, if not more. is more,” he added.
After a hearing of TikTok’s views on January 10, the US Supreme Court judges seemed to lean towards keeping the ban on TikTok. If there is no action to prevent it, ByteDance will have to divest TikTok in the US, otherwise the application will be banned from operating in the US on January 19. On December 27, 2024, US President-elect Donald Trump asked the Supreme Court to stop the TikTok ban.
