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TikTok Ban Looking Likely After U.S. Supreme Court Hears Case

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TikTok is likely to be banned in the United States on January 19, after the United States Supreme Court indicated that it's leaning toward upholding the sell or ban law.

tiktok-logo.jpg

As highlighted by Bloomberg, the Supreme Court heard arguments on the case today, and it didn't go well for TikTok. Most of the justices indicated that worry over U.S. national security overrides free speech, and there were concerns about the personal data that TikTok collects from users, content manipulation, and the influence that China has over ByteDance.

Justice Elena Kagan wasn't a fan of TikTok's argument that its constitutional rights were being violated. "The law is only targeted at this foreign corporation, which doesn't have First Amendment rights," she said.

Justice John Roberts said that "Congress is fine with the expression," but "not fine with a foreign adversary ... gathering all this information about the 170 million people who use TikTok." He also questioned China's influence on ByteDance. "Are we supposed to ignore the fact that the ultimate parent is in fact subject to doing intelligence work for the Chinese government?" he asked TikTok's lawyer.

The Supreme Court could give a ruling on TikTok before January 19, or postpone the date that the law goes into effect to give more time for consideration. TikTok asked the court to halt the ban while it waits for the appeals process to play out, but the court elected to hear the case ahead of January 19.

If the court upholds the law, U.S. app stores will not be able to distribute the TikTok app as of January 19. TikTok users who already have the app will be able to continue using it, but it will stop functioning over time because updates won't be permitted.

ByteDance can opt to sell TikTok to an approved company, which would allow TikTok to continue to operate. A sale won't happen before January 19, but if TikTok is banned, it could be reinstated after a sale. ByteDance has claimed that a sale is not possible, and that China would not approve the divestiture of TikTok and its algorithm.

Note: Due to the political or social nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Political News forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Article Link: TikTok Ban Looking Likely After U.S. Supreme Court Hears Case
 
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https://www.macrumors.com/2025/01/10/tiktok-ban-looking-likely-after-u-s-supreme-court-hears-case/
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Let’s face it. The US just isn’t happy that there is another big player on the market that isn’t American. Where is the actual PROOF that they are doing anything wrong? So far I have only read assumptions because … BOOOO china

And no, I don’t even use TikTok and don’t like the government of China either but this seems more like a „business decision“ more than anything, just like the whole Huawei ordeal. „Gotta slow em down cuz we can’t have China be ahead in the whole phone bizz“
 
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contacos said:
Let’s face it. The US just isn’t happy that there is another big player on the market that isn’t American. Where is the actual PROOF that they are doing anything wrong? So far I have only read assumptions because … BOOOO china

And no, I don’t even use TikTok and don’t like the government of China either but this seems more like a „business decision“ more than anything, just like the whole Huawei ordeal
Click to expand...

It’s less about TikTok specifically and more about the power of “social media” generally. The CIA used to go to a lot of work to compile networks of who knows who and where they are and what they are doing. Then Facebook built their dream system for them.

And then there’s the flip side of the mind control these companies have over the people who sit there and scroll this stuff into their brains all day. That’s money and power like has never before been seen in human history.

China has a strong foothold through TikTok. America has it through Facebook. This is not what it seems on the surface. Both governments know what they are doing and are trying not to admit the obvious.
 
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zorinlynx said:
I hate TikTok but it feels like banning an entire website is a serious slippery slope situation.
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But the law isn't banning TikTok per se, but rather ByteDance, its parent company. TikTok is more than welcome to continue to exist under another non-Chinese company. A shut-down by TikTok would be the consequence of ByteDance’s choice not to divest.
 
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I have no love for TikTok, but I think it’s hilarious they are singling out this one app from one company and citing security concerns and concerns the app may collect personal data and manipulate users. On that basis I would have thought they should be banning about 90% of the industry, starting with TwiXter and FaceMuck.
 
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