The Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a landmark First Amendment case on Friday that will determine the fate of TikTok in the United States. For more than two hours, the nine justices questioned lawyers for TikTok, content creators, and the US government about a law passed last year that, if left to stand, could result in a ban of the popular video-sharing app on January 19.
Speaking with WIRED, experts said it was unlikely that the court would side with TikTok and block the ban from going into effect. While the justices were concerned over the First Amendment implications of the law, they appeared convinced that the app poses a substantial risk to US national security.
TikTok’s lawyer, Noel Francisco, and Jeffrey Fisher, who represents the creators, argued that, as written, the law banning TikTok violates the rights their clients have to free expression; removing access to the TikTok algorithm, they claim, would remove a speech outlet for creators and the company itself. For the government, solicitor general Elizabeth Prelogar argued that the law does not censor the defendants, but quarantines the app from parent company ByteDance and Chinese influence.
“I don’t think [the law] reflects Congress seeking to set out in advance what kind of speech we should have reflecting certain views on certain topics,” Prelogar said. “Instead, it’s about trying to close off the vulnerability that our foreign adversary nation could exploit.”
“This case boils down to speech. What we’re talking about is ideas,” Francisco said in his rebuttal, dismissing national security concerns that the TikTok algorithm could be used to manipulate Americans. “That whole notion is at war with the First Amendment. If the First Amendment means anything, it means that the government cannot restrict speech, in order to protect us from the speech. That’s precisely what this law does from beginning to end.”
While many of the justices voiced concern over the law’s First Amendment threats, they also appeared amenable to the government’s argument that the law was more targeted toward severing TikTok’s connections with ByteDance than limiting its free-speech rights.
For more than five years, US officials have warned that TikTok has the potential to influence American perception of the Chinese government. In public interviews and congressional hearings, officials like FBI director Christopher Wray have also suggested that TikTok gathers US user data that the Chinese government could weaponize to surveil Americans online. TikTok has denied that it shares any US data with ByteDance or the Chinese government.
Donald Trump was the first to try banning TikTok in 2020, when he issued an executive order that quickly got held up in litigation throughout the remainder of his presidency. Upon taking office, President Joe Biden rescinded the order and began negotiating with TikTok to reach a deal designed to satisfy the government’s national security concerns while allowing TikTok to continue operating, an effort that became known as Project Texas. When no deal could be reached, Congress responded by approving the ban-or-sell bill, titled the Protecting Americans From Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, setting the January 19 deadline for ByteDance to sell TikTok to a suitable buyer or be removed from US app stores. The law allows for Biden to extend that deadline an additional 90 days.
Original Author: Makena Kelly | Source: Wired
