TikTok’s lawyer warned during Supreme Court arguments over a law that could force the sale or ban of the app in the UnitedStates that such action against TikTok could set a precedent for other companies.
The law, which has a January 19 deadline for ByteDance to sell TikTok or face a national security ban, is contested by the companies, who argue it infringes on First Amendment rights protecting free speech.
Noel Francisco, representing TikTok and ByteDance, argued that if the Supreme Court endorses this law, it could pave the way for statutes targeting other companies on similar grounds.
“AMC movie theaters used to be owned by a Chinese company. Under this theory, Congress could order AMC movie theaters to censor any movies that Congress doesn’t like or promote any movies that Congress wanted,” Francisco told the justices.
During the arguments, the justices indicated they were likely to uphold the law, though some raised significant concerns about its impact on the First Amendment.
TikTok, with around 170 million U.S. users—roughly half the population—was targeted by the law, passed last year with strong bipartisan support. Lawmakers cited concerns about the Chinese government’s potential use of TikTok for espionage and covert influence operations.
Jeffrey Fisher, the lawyer representing TikTok content creators who have also challenged the law, pointed out during the Supreme Court arguments that Congress was targeting TikTok with this measure, while not addressing major Chinese online retailers like Temu.
“Would a Congress (that is) really worried about these very dramatic risks leave out an e-commerce site like Temu that has 70 million Americans using it?” Fisher asked. “It’s very curious why you just single out TikTok alone and not other companies with tens of millions of people having their own data taken, you know, in the process of engaging with those websites and equally, if not more, available to Chinese control.”
President Joe Biden signed the measure into law, and his administration is defending it in this case.
The divestiture deadline falls just one day before Republican Donald Trump, who opposes the ban, assumes office as Biden’s successor.
Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, representing the Biden administration in defense of the law, emphasized the importance of the Jan. 19 deadline to compel ByteDance to proceed with divestiture.
“Foreign adversaries do not willingly give up their control over this mass communications channel in the United States,” Prelogar said.
“When push comes to shove, and these restrictions take effect, I think it will fundamentally change the landscape with respect to what ByteDance is willing to consider. And it might be just the jolt that Congress expected the company would need to actually move forward with the divestiture process.”
If the ban takes effect on Jan. 19, Apple and Google would be prohibited from offering TikTok for download to new users, though existing users could still access the app.
Both the U.S. government and TikTok agree that over time, the app would degrade and eventually become unusable because the companies would no longer be able to provide necessary supporting services.
