The US Department of Justice (DoJ) has urged the Supreme Court to allow the US ban on TikTok to take effect on January 19, the last day of President Joe Biden’s term. This is a reactionary attack on democratic rights and freedom of expression that must be opposed.
At a court hearing on January 10, the department urged the court to reject TikTok’s challenge to the law passed by Congress last year to force ByteDance, the Chinese parent company, to sell the popular app, as well as new President Donald Trump’s request to delay the ban until he takes office.
This ban is part of the “Armed Peace in the 21st Century Act” [21st Century Peace through Strength Act]. It was adopted by an overwhelming bipartisan majority, with 79 votes for and 18 against in the Senate, and 352 votes for and 65 against in the House of Representatives. It was signed into law by Biden last April. The TikTok ban was part of a military aid package that included a $26 billion bill for the Israeli genocide in Gaza, $8 billion to arm Taiwan for war with China, and $61 billion for the war waged by the United States and NATO against Russia in Ukraine.
The law required ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, to sell the app and its powerful video recommendation algorithm to a U.S. buyer by January 19, 2025. The Chinese government previously said selling the algorithm would undermine security national. TikTok also indicated that such a “divestment” would be incompatible with the TikTok system, given that the recommendation algorithm is continuously developed by a global engineering team and the content is global in nature.
It goes without saying that if China tried to do the same thing to an American company, for example to force Google to give up its search engine algorithm in order to remain in the Chinese market, this would be denounced. by the US government and mainstream media as a dictatorial effort by Beijing to take control of US assets for the most nefarious purposes.
In December, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals upheld the anti-TikTok bill, prompting the company to file an emergency appeal. The advanced decay of the “justice” system is shown by the comments of the judges, appointed by Republicans and Democrats, affirming that the ban would be upheld and that TikTok would be dismissed in its appeal, as well as Trump’s effort to obtain a reprieve.
Biden-appointed Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson suggested that banning a means of communication used by 170 million Americans did not violate the First Amendment, supporting the position taken by Biden Attorney General Merrick Garland in his brief to the Court demanding a refusal. Chief Justice John Roberts, a Bush appointee, made a similar statement. He argued along the same lines as Garland saying that since Congress’s goal was to prevent a “foreign adversary” from collecting information on app users, the law was legitimate.
Important comments were made during the oral arguments. Justice Elena Kagan linked anti-communist laws passed by the US government during the 1950s ‘Red Scare’ to regulate Communist Party speech. Jackson disputed Attorney General Elizabeth Prelogar’s assertion that the law had nothing to do with changing the app’s content, saying the “entire purpose of the assignment” was to change the content. .
This was further confirmed by Prelogar’s telling response to Justice Neil Gorsuch, who asked whether the government’s position was “that ByteDance might, through TikTok, try to get Americans to argue with each other.” Prelogar agreed, saying “that very well could be true.”
Despite all the allegations of “content manipulation” and insinuations of pervasive propaganda, the government has presented no evidence of it. Gorsuch said at one point, “The government admits that it has no evidence that TikTok engaged in covert manipulation of content in this country.” The entire government dossier contains about as much evidence as George W. Bush provided on Iraqi “weapons of mass destruction,” the infamous allegation to justify the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Trump argued for a reprieve, arguing that he had unique expertise in using social media and that the Supreme Court should recognize that fact by giving him final authority to decide whether to implement the ban of Congress. In reality, he asked the Court to give even greater scope to presidential power over the whole of social and economic life.
While claiming to pose as a defender of the democratic rights of TikTok users, taking advantage of the right-wing policies of the Biden administration, Trump seeks to achieve a similar result, only giving himself time to lead the forced sale of ByteDance to billionaires of his choice, like “Shark Tank” investor Kevin O’Leary, American billionaire Frank McCourt or Elon Musk. He would essentially achieve the same ends as the Democrats in limiting free speech, while enriching his favored oligarch buyers.
Garland and the Biden administration are clearly lying when they claim the law is not an attempt to “suppress adverse views” that violates the First Amendment. One of the main goals of the law, as described by Republican senator and Trump acolyte Marco Rubio, is to outlaw “adverse opinions.”
Rubio, a fascist candidate for secretary of state, led the campaign to ban TikTok and was an early supporter of the bill to ban it, saying the legislation would be “a big step toward fight against the malign influence of Beijing. Rubio’s official This hate campaign is consistent with bipartisan support for the ‘Wuhan Lab’ conspiracy theory, which vilifies China for making her responsible for COVID-19 (article in English).
Rubio is also against TikTok because of the role the app played in exposing the Israeli genocide in Gaza. In a message dated November 4, he claimed that it “amplified pro-Hamas content” and that it was “another reason to ban the application.” In another similar message, published in February, he claimed that “TikTok’s influence on young Americans and its users creates anti-Israeli and pro-Hamas sentiment.” And in another: “TikTok is a tool for disseminating terrorist propaganda and anti-Semitism. One more reason why we must [l’]to forbid”.
In other words, what the ruling class and its parties really fear is the capacity of social networks to show the truth about capitalist society, its wars, its glaring inequalities and attacks on fundamental democratic rights.
Members of Congress have claimed the ban was intended to protect Americans’ personal data, but this is denied by the reauthorization in April (article in English) of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which renews the ability of the NSA and the CIA to conduct a massive, warrantless and unconstitutional spying operation that scrutinizes all Americans’ telephone and Internet data. By far the greatest threat to the democratic rights of the American public is the American ruling class, not TikTok. The first and most important step toward truly democratic rights would be to disband the National Security Agency and the Central Intelligence Agency.
IYSSE (International Youth and Students for Social Equality) opposes the ban on TikTok, whether by Democrats or Trump, and calls on students, youth and workers to demand its reversal. This ban aims to stoke national chauvinism and anti-Chinese hatred in anticipation of war with China and more generally to suppress socialist and anti-war opinions.
While opposing this ban, IYSSE also recognizes that TikTok itself practices censorship. Content opposing the genocide in Gaza, as well as calls for the release of opponents of the war in Ukraine, such as Ukrainian socialist Bogdan Syrotiuk, have been censored (article in English).
In the event of a forced sale of TikTok, the US government would seek to establish a Facebook-style censorship regime, or worse. Facebook is known for having tens of thousands of thought police who scour publications and censor socialist or left-wing ideas. Google admitted during a Senate hearing having censored the World Socialist Web Site. Instagram carries out massive censorship against opposition to the genocide in Gaza, as revealed by a rapport de Human Rights Watch .
The main source of disinformation and propaganda is the capitalist system, in which a handful of wealthy oligarchs control the economy and political system. The Trump administration represents a full-scale takeover of all political power by the oligarchy, which can only lead to dictatorship and the destruction of all democratic rights.
To combat these dangers, the IYSSE demands the expropriation by the working class of all social media and internet companies, the removal of censorship from big business and government, and democratic control of working class on the basis of the greatest freedom of discussion and debate.
(Article published in English on January 14, 2025)
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