“TikTok has exhausted the legal route”notes The Country. Deaf to the arguments of the social network, which called for freedom of expression, the Supreme Court of the United States refused on Friday to repeal the federal law “forcing the short video platform to separate from its parent company, the Chinese company ByteDance”adds the Spanish daily.
“There is no doubt that, for more than 170 million Americans, TikTok provides an important means of expression, interaction and community.”estimated the nine wise men in their decision, taken unanimously. “But Congress determined that its divestment was necessary to address its well-founded national security concerns”they observed.
American parliamentarians suspect TikTok of serving as a Trojan Horse for Chinese authorities to collect information on users of the platform in the United States – accusations deemed unfounded by the social network.
Trump wants to “save” TikTok
ByteDance had until Sunday January 19 to sell its American subsidiary, under penalty of a ban, but the Chinese group “has never publicly stated any desire to sell its stake in TikTok”note Variety.
The platform, in a “last attempt to put pressure on the government to grant him a reprieve”urged the Biden administration to ensure “Apple, Google and other companies, that they will not be sanctioned if they offer TikTok services in the United States” after January 19, reports the New York Times.
Otherwise, “unfortunately, TikTok will be forced to close its doors on January 19”lamented the social network.
More “the Biden administration has indicated that it will leave enforcement of the ban to President-elect Donald Trump, who will be inaugurated on Monday [20 janvier]and a White House official reaffirmed Friday evening “ that the outgoing government intended to leave it there, specifies CNN.
-ByteDance can at least count on the support of the next president. Donald Trump has indeed promised to “save” the platform – which helped him a lot in his winning a second term, particularly among young people – and declared on Friday that he had spoken with Chinese President Xi Jinping on “trade balancing, fentanyl, TikTok and many other topics”note The Verge.
But the billionaire also delayed. He stressed that the Court’s decision must be “respected” and said he had “need time” to rule on the fate of the social network, promising a decision “in the fairly near future”.
Mass registrations
It is therefore almost certain that the application will lower the curtain this Sunday. Because “although the law only requires that the application is no longer downloadable in smartphone application stores, TikTok itself plans to close access to existing users the day the ban comes into force”underlines The Guardian.
According to Variety, “TikTok users will see a message directing them to a site with information about the ban. Tiktokers will also have the possibility to download their personal data”.
Waiting for, “professional content creators are scrambling to prepare for a world without the app that redefined their livelihoods”observe the Washington Post. Some even go so far as to register “en masse to other creator accounts, artificially inflating everyone’s stats in hopes of gaining extra money or attention during the app’s final days”.
