The social network TikTok achieved a first success on Wednesday in its legal battle against an American law requiring its Chinese parent company to sell it under penalty of ban, the Supreme Court agreeing to examine the constitutionality of this law.
Congress adopted in April by a large majority – bringing together Democratic and Republican votes – the law against TikTok, which claims 170 million active users in the United States. The law aims to prevent the risks of espionage and manipulation of platform users by Chinese authorities.
The law, immediately promulgated by President Joe Biden, sets a deadline of January 19 for its parent company, ByteDance, to comply with it.
TikTok has repeatedly denied having transmitted information to the Beijing government and assured that it would refuse any possible request in this regard.
His appeal against this law was dismissed on December 6 by the Federal Court of Appeal in Washington, which also rejected his request for suspension on December 13.
The American Supreme Court, however, agreed on Wednesday to look into this matter. She did not suspend the entry into force of the law, as requested by TikTok and Bytedance on Monday, but set the debates for January 10. They will focus on the question of whether this law violates the First Amendment of the American Constitution guaranteeing freedom of expression.
Trump’s ‘Weak’ for TikTok
“Congress has adopted a massive and unprecedented restriction on freedom of speech,” they say, stressing that the law must come into force on the eve of the inauguration of the new president, Donald Trump.
The social network is visibly counting on the sympathy of the Republican, who confided on Monday to having a “soft spot” for TikTok. He also met TikTok boss Shou Zi Chew the same day, according to media reports.
However, Donald Trump himself tried to ban TikTok in the summer of 2020, during his first term, through executive decrees which were rejected by the courts.
He has since reversed course, calling on service-minded voters to vote for him. The Republican sees TikTok as an alternative to Facebook and Instagram, the two Meta platforms, which had temporarily banned him after his support for the participants in the assault on the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
The social network again denounced on Monday in support of its appeal to the Supreme Court “massive censorship”. “Estimates show that it would cause small businesses on TikTok to lose more than $1 billion in revenue and cost content creators almost $300 million in lost revenue,” he said.
