TikTok Gets Supreme Court Support to Halt Ban

Angelica

WRITTEN BY Angelica

Updated on December 19, 2024

HIGHLIGHTS:

  • TikTok wins Supreme Court ruling to halt law forcing its parent firm ByteDance to divest its shares in the company to an American firm
  • TikTok said it hopes the Supreme Court will find the law unconstitutional
  • The company said being shuttered for even just a month could potentially lose one-third of its users in the US and undermines its ability to attract advertisers

The US Supreme Court on Wednesday heard an appeal by TikTok and its China-based parent firm ByteDance to block a law that would force the latter to divest its entire stake in the mobile app before the January 19 deadline or face a ban.

Earlier this week, TikTok and ByteDance asked the Supreme Court to halt the law, saying that it violates free speech protections under the US Constitution’s First Amendment.

Following the ruling, TikTok said it believes the court will find the law unconstitutional, “so the over 170 million Americans on our platform can continue to exercise their free speech rights.”

The companies said that being shuttered for even a month would cause TikTok to lose about a third of its US users and undermine its ability to attract advertisers and recruit content creators and employee talent.

Lower Court Challenged

The Supreme Court ruling challenged an earlier decision by the lower court which upheld the law over fears that the Chinese government could be potentially using the social media app to access personal information of Americans.

The decision became a major blow for ByteDance which could potentially lose its footing in the US, but a major win for the Justice department and ByteDance’s opponents, including Meta.

The Justice department earlier said that TikTok under a Chinese ownership poses a threat due to its access to vast personal data of Americans. It added that China can covertly manipulate information that Americans consume through the said app.

The Chinese Embassy in Washington called the law “a blatant act of commercial robbery” and warned that the US “must handle this case in a prudent manner to avoid harming the mutual trust between the two countries and the development of bilateral relations.”

The US and China have long been in growing trade tensions. The latest blow came after President Joe Biden placed new restrictions on China’s chip industry and Beijing responded by imposing an outright ban on exports of gallium, germanium, and antimony to the US.

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