Supreme Court upholds TikTok ban

This separation is unlikely to take place, as the deadline for the ban is this Sunday, January 19. However, the deadline comes just a day before President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration, and President Joe Biden’s administration has indicated it does not plan to enforce the law until after Trump is sworn in.

The nation’s highest court has ruled that the “separate or ban” ultimatum does not violate free speech rights guaranteed by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. She thus supported the Biden administration, despite calls from Donald Trump to delay the deadline so that he could negotiate an agreement allowing TikTok to continue operating in the United States.

“There is no doubt that, for more than 170 million Americans, TikTok represents a unique and expansive space for expression, a means of interaction and a source of community”the Court wrote in its unsigned opinion.

“But Congress has found that TikTok’s divestment is necessary to address well-substantiated national security concerns about the app’s data collection practices and its ties to a foreign adversary. »

“In these circumstances, we judge that the Government’s justification related to the collection of data is sufficient to maintain the contested provisions”continues the decision.

This bipartisan law, passed by Congress and signed by Biden last April, gave ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, 270 days to divest from the app or risk a ban in the United States.

-

The final decision will be up to Donald Trump: he will have to choose between keeping TikTok online temporarily or implementing the ban once he officially takes office.

Trump had expressed some sympathy towards TikTok in the run-up to the ban, and the app’s CEO, Shou Zi Chew, will attend his inauguration this Monday, January 20.

Reports also indicate that Trump is considering signing an executive order to circumvent the ban.