Tiktok, with over 170 million U.S. users, faces the Supreme Court in a law banning the social media app in the United States. It is up to the Supreme Court judges to determine whether the ban is constitutional or not. The nine justices listened to the prosecution elaborate on how Tiktok is being used to collect American data for ill-natured reasons, while also serving as a platform to manipulate data being fed to Americans. The defense, on the other hand, explained how this ban violates the First Amendment right to freedom of speech, preventing users from expressing their opinions on social media.
After the Supreme Court heard oral arguments on January 10th, many justices appeared doubtful of the defense’s argument. Justices Elena Kagan, Amy Coney Barrett, and Kentanji Brown Jackson all emphasized that the ban was not about silencing users’ freedom of speech on the app but rather preventing intelligence from being gathered on U.S. citizens for malicious reasons.
ByteDance, the Chinese company behind TikTok, has the option to sell off the app by January 19th to an American company. However, with less than a week left, the chances are slim of the company selling off the hit social media app.
It is still unknown when the court ruling on the ban will be announced, however, the Supreme Court reported that some opinions on current unsettled cases will be revealed on Wednesday, January 15th.