Supreme Court to Review TikTok Ban Law Amidst Free Speech Concerns
The United States Supreme Court is set to deliberate next month on the constitutional legitimacy of a federal law that may impose a ban on TikTok unless its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, divests its ownership. The hearing, scheduled for January 10, will focus on whether the law infringes on First Amendment rights by excessively restraining speech.
TikTok, a popular social media app with over 170 million users in the U.S., faces a January 19 deadline to complete the sale or potentially face a nationwide ban. The Supreme Court’s involvement stems from requests by ByteDance and TikTok, urging the justices to intervene ahead of the deadline. The Court’s decision could potentially halt the law’s enforcement if a majority of justices deem it unconstitutional.
Both TikTok users and content creators who depend on the platform for their livelihoods will also be represented in the proceedings. The arguments will coincide with the outgoing Biden administration’s Justice Department defending the law, which received bipartisan support and was enacted by President Joe Biden in April.
There is uncertainty about how the incoming Trump administration will handle the situation. Although President-elect Donald Trump previously supported a TikTok ban, he has recently expressed a willingness to “save TikTok,” following a meeting with TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew at Mar-a-Lago.
The case presents a conflict between free speech rights and the government’s national security concerns. TikTok’s spokesperson, Michael Hughes, stated, “We believe the Court will find the TikTok ban unconstitutional so the over 170 million Americans on our platform can continue to exercise their free speech rights.” Free-speech advocates have also welcomed the Supreme Court’s decision to hear the case.
David Greene, a lawyer with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, criticized the law, saying, “The government should not be able to restrict speech without proving with evidence that the tools are presently seriously harmful. But in this case, Congress has required and the DC Circuit approved TikTok’s forced divestiture based only upon fears of future potential harm. This greatly lowers well-established standards for restricting freedom of speech in the U.S.”
On December 6, a panel of federal judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit unanimously upheld the law and subsequently denied an emergency plea to postpone its implementation. If the law takes effect without court intervention, it will expose app stores and internet hosting services offering TikTok to potential fines, with enforcement falling to the Justice Department.
However, the incoming Trump administration’s Justice Department might choose to pause or modify the enforcement of the law’s most severe consequences, as Trump takes office a day after the law’s scheduled enforcement date.
