WASHINGTON: The US Supreme Court on Friday upheld a law banning TikTok in the United States on national security grounds if its Chinese parent company ByteDance does not sell the short-video app by Sunday, as the justices in a 9-0 decision declined to rescue a platform used by about half of all Americans.
The justices ruled that the law, passed by an overwhelming bipartisan majority in Congress last year and signed by Democratic President Joe Biden, did not violate the US Constitution’s First Amendment protection against government abridgment of free speech. The justices affirmed a lower court’s deci-sion that had upheld the measure after it was challenged by TikTok, ByteDance and some of the app’s users. “There is no doubt that, for more than 170 million Americans, TikTok offers a distinctive and expansive outlet for expression, means of engagement and source of community. But Congress has determined that divestiture is necessary to address its well-supported national security concerns regarding Tik-Tok’s data collection practices and relationship with a foreign adversary,” the court said in the unsigned opinion.
The court added that “we conclude that the challenged provisions do not violate petitioners’ First Amendment rights.”
A statement issued by the White House statement suggested that Biden would not take any action to save TikTok before the law’s Sunday deadline for divestiture. Republican Donald Trump, who opposed a TikTik ban, succeeds Biden on Monday.
The case pitted free speech rights against national security concerns in the age of social media.
The court said it was giving “substantial respect” to the US government’s national security concerns about China. The justices noted that evidence in the case reflected that China “has engaged in exten-sive and years-long efforts to accumulate structured datasets, in particular on US persons, to support its intelligence and counterintelligence operations.”
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre in a statement reiterated Biden’s position that “TikTok should remain available to Americans, but simply under American ownership or other ownership that addresses the national security concerns identified by Congress in developing this law.”
Given the timing, Jean-Pierre added, action to implement the law “must fall to the next administra-tion.”
Trump’s team did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
TikTok also did not immediately respond to a request for comment. TikTok plans to shut US operations of the app on Sunday barring a last-minute reprieve, people familiar with the matter told Reuters on Wednesday.
Without a decision by Biden to formally invoke a 90-day delay in the deadline, companies providing services to TikTok or hosting the app could face legal liability. It is not immediately clear if TikTok’s busi-ness partners including Google, Apple and Oracle will continue doing business with it before Trump is inaugurated. The uncertainty leaves open the possibility of a shutdown by TikTok on Sunday. –Agencies
