Court to ban TikTok in US

A majority of US Supreme Court justices are leaning towards supporting the law banning the use of TikTok within the country. The ban is expected to take effect as early as 19 January 2025. This is reported by leading American media outlets, including CNN, Axios and the Associated Press.

During hearings held on Friday, 10 January, the justices heard arguments from both TikTok representatives and the platform’s content creators. The discussion of the law, which was approved by Congress last year, took place not in the context of the First Amendment to the US Constitution, but rather as an attempt to regulate potential foreign influence on the app, which has approximately 170 million American users.

The justices expressed concern about TikTok’s ties to China through its parent company, ByteDance. If ByteDance does not agree to sell the app, or if the Supreme Court does not rule to temporarily block the law, TikTok could be banned as early as January 2025.

The bill previously proposed by Congress was justified by a potential national security threat. Specifically, US lawmakers claim that ByteDance is controlled by the Chinese government, allowing the company to collect and process vast amounts of user data in the US. According to the bill’s authors, this creates a risk of manipulation and interference in the country’s internal affairs.

CNN recalls that both Donald Trump and Joe Biden have previously expressed concern regarding TikTok. In particular, the discussion involved potential censorship or manipulation of content on the platform, as well as its data collection practices.

For its part, TikTok rejects such allegations, stating that the concerns are speculative. The company asserts that the Chinese government has no influence over its algorithms, which curate feeds of cat videos, recipes and news for millions of American users.