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this Supreme Court China’s ByteDance insists on legal demands to divest its ownership of TikTok by Sunday or face effective ban Popular social video app in the United States
ByteDance has so far refused to sell TikTok, which means many US users may Lost access to the app this weekend. The app may still be available for those who already have TikTok installed on their phones, although ByteDance has also threatened to shut down the app.
In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court sided with the Biden administration, upholding the president’s Applications to Protect Americans from Control by Foreign Adversaries Act. Joe Biden sign April.
“There is no question that for more than 170 million Americans, TikTok provides a unique and broad source of expression, participation, and community,” the Supreme Court’s opinion said. “But Congress has determined that divestiture is necessary to address Its national security concerns about TikTok’s data collection practices and relationships with foreign adversaries are well supported.”
Supreme Court Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Neil Gorsuch agreed in writing.
The country’s top court said in its opinion that while “data collection and analysis are common practices in this digital age,” TikTok’s sheer size and its “vulnerability to control by foreign adversaries, as well as the vast amounts of sensitive data collected by the platform,” have caused national concern Security concerns.
According to legal provisions, third-party Internet service providers such as apple and Google will be punished for supporting TikTok, owned by ByteDance, after the January 19 deadline.
If ISPs and app store owners comply, they will remove TikTok from their respective app stores, preventing users from downloading TikTok or installing updates needed to make the app work properly.
The fate of TikTok America is now in the hands of the president-elect Donald Trumpwho in December ask Supreme Court Suspension of the law and gave his government “the opportunity to seek a political solution to the contentious issues in this case.”
Trump will be inaugurated on Monday, the day after the TikTok sales deadline. TikTok CEO Shou Chew is one of several technology leaders expected to attendsitting on the podium.
In December, member of the House of Representatives Special Committee on the Communist Party of China Sent letter In the letter, Apple CEO Cook and Google CEO Sundar Pichai urged executives to start preparing to comply with the law and reminded them of their responsibilities as app store operators.
Last Friday, Supreme Court hears oral arguments From lawyers representing TikTok, content creators and the U.S. government. Noel Francisco, TikTok’s lead attorney, argued that the law violated the First Amendment rights of the app’s 170 million U.S. users. Meanwhile, U.S. Deputy Attorney General Elizabeth Preloga countered that the app’s alleged ties to the People’s Republic of China through its parent company ByteDance posed a threat to national security.
After the oral arguments, many legal experts believed that the U.S. Supreme Court seemed to be more favorable to the U.S. government’s case involving TikTok’s alleged suspicious relationship with the Chinese government.
Many TikTok creators have been telling their fans to find them on competing social platforms like Google’s YouTube, Meta’s Facebook and Instagram, CNBC report. Separately, CNBC reported that Instagram leaders arranged a meeting after last Friday’s Supreme Court hearing to instruct employees to prepare for a wave of users who would see the court support the law.
Chinese social media apps and TikTok-like RedNote tops list A search on Apple’s App Store on Monday showed TikTok’s millions of users looking for alternatives.
The Chinese government has also weighed contingency plan Elon Musk will acquire TikTok’s U.S. operations as part of multiple options aimed at preventing the app from being effectively banned in the U.S., according to Bloomberg report on Monday. The plan is one of several the Chinese government is considering as part of larger discussions involving cooperation with the incoming Trump administration, the report said.
watch: SCOTUS hears TikTok ban case.
