The company that owns TikTok will go to the US Supreme Court on Friday to try to stop a new law that would see the popular social media app banned later this month.
The law would prevent companies like Apple and Google from making TikTok available to users in the United States unless its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, sells it.
The ban is expected to take effect on January 19, the day before Donald Trump's inauguration as president.
The US Supreme Court is hearing ByteDance's last-ditch effort to strike down the ban as unconstitutional.
Here's what you need to know.
Why do US lawmakers want to ban TikTok?
The US government sees the Chinese ownership of TikTok as a “serious threat to national security” because the Chinese government has the power to force ByteDance to hand over user data and because of fears that China could use TikTok's powerful algorithm to de- spread disease.
“TikTok's collection of sensitive data about 170 million Americans and their contacts makes it a powerful tool for espionage, and TikTok's role as a primary means of communication makes it a potent tool for covert influence operations,” the US attorney wrote, General Elizabeth Prelogar in a government summary to the court.
The government argues that the law is not intended to restrict users' free speech but instead aims to end foreign adversary control of TikTok.
How would the ban work?
The law would ban TikTok in the US if ByteDance fails to divest and sell the app to a non-Chinese company by January 19.
It makes it illegal for anyone to “distribute, maintain or update the app” in the US and anyone who breaks the law risks a steep fine of up to $5,000 per user .
This means that it would not immediately affect anyone who has already downloaded TikTok, but app stores would no longer be allowed to carry TikTok in the US, and users would not be able to update or get newer versions of the app.
Congress passed the bill last year with strong bipartisan support in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, before President Joe Biden. to add his name in the law.
The US House of Representatives has passed a bill that would ban TikTok nationwide unless its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, sells it. The bill appears to have hit a roadblock in the Senate, however.
Who will the Supreme Court case hinge on?
The case boils down to a conflict between two fundamental principles of US law: the First Amendment right to free speech versus the government's authority to determine national security concerns, said Gus Hurwitz, academic director of the Technology Center, Innovation and Competition at the University of Edinburgh. Carey School of Law in Philadelphia.
Hurwitz said ByteDance's position is that the intended effect of the law is to stop the company from talking to Americans.
“The company is making a very simple First Amendment-style argument here, that they are a speech platform, that they are not in many ways different from a newspaper, a magazine, a website any other network,” Hurwitz said in an interview with CBC News.
Freddy Tran Nager, associate director of the digital social media program at the University of Southern California, Annenberg, said ByteDance's argument is “a little thin.”
“This legislation does not ban TikTok based on its content,” Nager said in an interview. “The concerns are about data privacy, especially the data of American citizens.”
Can the US legally change ownership of TikTok?
The US has a long history of limiting foreign ownership of broadcast outlets such as radio stations and television networks, but limiting ownership of social media platforms is a new frontier.
Kate Ruane, director of the free expression project at the Center for Democracy and Technology in Washington, DC, described the law as unprecedented.
“Banning an entire platform of speech within the United States is a violation of the constitution of the highest order,” Ruane said in an interview.
“It prevents 170 million TikTok users from using their favorite medium to communicate online in ways that have nothing to do with the government's stated concerns,” she said.
The ban could be lifted if ByteDance begins negotiations to sell the app to a non-Chinese owner, but the company has given no indication that is happening.
TikTok is suing the US government over a law that would ban the Chinese-owned app unless it is sold to another company. Andrew Chang breaks down TikTok's legal argument and why he says his First Amendment rights are being violated.
What is the timeframe for a decision?
The Supreme Court agreed with s quick listening of the case, since the law is close on January 19.
“I expect that if the court is going to side with TikTok, we will hear very soon,” perhaps next week, Hurwitz said. “If an injunction is not issued immediately … I would interpreting that silence to mean with absolute confidence that the court is going to decide against TikTok.”
What will happen once Donald Trump takes office?
Trump's inauguration will take place on January 20, one day after the ban takes effect. After favoring a ban on TikTok in his first term, he has his tune changed. Trump now wants the law suspended, and his lawyers filed a “friend of the court” brief on his behalf ahead of the hearing on Friday.
“President Trump is against banning TikTok in the United States at this stage, and he is seeking the possibility of resolving the issues through political means once he takes office, ” the message says.
Nager said he suspects the incoming Trump administration would like “TikTok to be part of a larger package of negotiations (with China), whether it's tariffs or other imports or other military agreement.
Trump could issue an executive order that halts enforcement of the law, Hurwitz said, but added that, in the long term, the new president is unlikely to use political capital to to overturn the law when so many Republican lawmakers are staunchly anti-Chinese. own the app.
Would Canada win?
The ban on distributing TikTok only applies to organizations in the US
Separately, the federal government ordered TikTok in November to ceased its business activities in Canada, but does not limit access to the application.
