TikTok didn’t have a great day in court

Doom could come rolling after the Supreme Court heard arguments Friday on the constitutionality of a law that would force TikTok’s Chinese owners, ByteDance, to divest from the social media platform or see the app, which is being used by about 170 million Americans, banned. in the United States

A decision is expected before the deadline of the January 19 transfer of the law and court observers reported that the judges appeared skeptical of TikTok’s arguments. ByteDance is a group of creators of TikTok already lost his case in a lower federal court last month, which set the stage for a last-gasp appeal to the Supreme Court.

The case is about a bipartisan law passed by Congress and signed by President Joe Biden earlier this year that prohibits the TikTok app from operating in the United States unless ByteDance relinquishes control of its US subsidiary. Intelligence officials and lawmakers stayed raise the alarm on TikTok’s ownership for years, arguing that the company’s addictive algorithm operates as a propaganda machine for the Chinese government and that the data the app collects on users threatens national security United States.

US Attorney General Elizabeth Prelogar pressed those points on Friday, saying that “tThe Chinese government could weaponize TikTok at any time “using the large amount of sensitive data that the app collects to blackmail the Americans or using its influence over the ownership of ByteDance. algorithm to “covertly manipulate the platform to advance their geopolitical goals.”

TikTok’s lawyer, Noel Francisco, argued that the law was aimed directly at suppressing certain ideas and content and would therefore violate TikTok Inc.’s free speech rights. (the American subsidiary company). In addition, he said, Congress had not considered less restrictive options to prevent the Chinese government from accessing the data that TikTok collects on US users. The law would essentially force TikTok to shut down, he said, because selling the platform would be extremely difficult and even if another entity bought the US subsidiary it would not be able to use ByteDance’s recognition algorithm that made TikTok so popular. .

The case hinges on several core questions: Is a law prohibiting a publisher from being controlled by a foreign entity an impermissible restriction on protected speech? And if so, does Congress have a compelling enough national security argument for the law to survive the strict standard of scrutiny the court has established for cases pitting national security against First Amendment protections?

During the two-and-a-half-hour hearing, Prelogar and several judges repeatedly pointed out that the law does not force TikTok to close. Under a new owner, the American version of the app could switch to a different recommendation algorithm, even one that promotes pro-Chinese content, as long as the Chinese government itself does not have a backdoor in the application.

While the judges could make a clear determination to uphold or overturn the law, they could also choose to put a temporary stay on the case to let President-elect Donald Trump negotiate a deal — something TikTok’s lawyers seemed happy to accept. Trump filed a brief with the court days before the hearing to request such a delay.