TikTok US Ban Update the Chinese-owned video-sharing app, as a threat to America’s national security. This week, as Mr. Trump prepares to retake the White House, he called it a “unique medium for freedom of expression.”
A law passed with wide bipartisan support and signed by President Biden in April calls for ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, to sell the app to a non-Chinese company or face a ban in the United States because it risks national security and free speech. The justices are considering the company’s challenge to that law.
The Biden administration and members of Congress argue that the platform’s Chinese ownership compromises U.S. security because of the extensive user tracking and data collection it performs.
“It is hard to believe that Trump’s TikTok flip-flop is about anything much more than the influence of a billionaire donor and Trump’s reluctance to give up his access to his followers on the platform,” Mr. Garin said, referring to Jeff Yass, a Republican megadonor who owns a significant share of ByteDance.
On 10 January, the court is due to hear arguments on a US law that requires TikTok’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, to sell the social media company to an American firm or face a ban come 19 January—a day before Trump takes office.
TikTok and ByteDance have filed multiple legal challenges against the law, arguing that it threatens American free speech protections, with little success. With no potential buyer materializing, the companies’ final chance to derail the ban has been via the American high court.
