TikTok Petitions Supreme Court To Block Ban
- by Wendy Davis @wendyndavis, December 16, 2024
TikTok on Monday asked the Supreme Court to issue an emergency order halting a law that will result in a ban on the app unless it separates from China-based parent company ByteDance.
“The Act will shutter one of America’s most popular speech platforms the day before a presidential inauguration,” the company writes in a petition addressed to Chief Justice John Roberts.
“This, in turn, will silence the speech of applicants and the many Americans who use the platform to communicate about politics, commerce, arts, and other matters of public concern,” TikTok adds.
The company is seeking a stay of the Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act (H.R. 7521), which will prohibit app stores and websites from distributing TikTok unless it's divested by ByteDance. Lawmakers who passed the bill expressed concerns that the Chinese government may be able to access data about TikTok's users, and use the app to influence public opinion.
advertisement
advertisement
The law gives ByteDance a January 19 deadline to find a buyer for TikTok, but provides that President Joe Biden can extend that period for up to three months. Biden hasn't yet indicated whether he will do so.
TikTok and a group of content creators previously asked the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals to invalidate the law, arguing that shuttering a communications platform violates the First Amendment.
That court sided against TikTok, ruling on December 6 that the law's curbs on speech are justified by national security concerns.
TikTok argues in its petition to Roberts that the circuit court's opinion is “manifestly erroneous.”
“Congress’s unprecedented attempt to single out applicants and bar them from operating one of the most significant speech platforms in this nation presents grave constitutional problems that this court likely will not allow to stand,” the company argues.
TikTok adds that it “will suffer massive irreparable injury” if the app -- used by an estimated 170 million Americans each month -- is forced to shut down on January 19.
A company spokesman separately stated that even a one month ban on TikTok would cost the company more than $1 billion in revenue, and cost creators almost $300 million in earnings.
TikTok has requested that Roberts rule on the request for a stay by January 6.
I guess I have two comments on this whole furor.
1. I have a 20-year-old daughter. I don't think people realize the extent to which TikTok is embedded into the fabric of life for today's young people. Remember back in 2020, when scads of TikTok users reserved free tickets to that Trump rally, resulting in them planning for a massive crowd that never showed up? My wife and I were watching the reporting of this event on the news, and my then-16-year-old daughter, who paid absolutely zero attention to politics and current events at the time, looked up from her phone and said, "oh yeah, I got one of those." my wife and I were stunned. There is a whole generation of people who get their information from TikTok, Snapchat, and Instagram. And I'm pretty sure TikTok is the leader. if we just yank it out all at once in January, the impact is going to be profound, with a ton of unanticipated blowback. it is literally where kids live today. I am concerned that if we aren't careful, we might unleash an unmanageable wave of kids going outside to have a catch.
2. While I appreciate the concern about TikTok being Chinese-owned, I find myself dubious that China has less access to our data on Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, or Instagram then they do to our data on TikTok.