In a stunning transfer, the Supreme Courtroom acted nearly instantly and scheduled oral arguments for January 10, however has not acted on TikTok’s request to pause the regulation, studies Reuters.
ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese language father or mother firm, has requested US officers to revise the invoice that was signed into regulation by Biden again in April. This regulation might power the sale of the ultra-popular short-video app or end in its ban by January 19 on nationwide safety grounds.
The regulation, handed by Congress in April and signed by President Joe Biden, goals to handle issues that TikTok poses a major nationwide safety danger on account of its means to entry huge quantities of consumer knowledge, together with non-public messages and areas, and probably manipulate content material. That is not Fb or Instagram we’re speaking about right here, preserve that in thoughts.
TikTok, utilized by roughly 170 million People, denies these allegations, insisting it poses no speedy risk to US safety.
TikTok and ByteDance argue that the regulation violates the First Modification’s free speech protections. They warn {that a} ban might end result within the platform shedding a 3rd of its US customers inside a month, harming its relationships with advertisers, content material creators, and staff. Of their Supreme Courtroom submitting, they emphasised that the First Modification permits People to resolve whether or not to make use of TikTok, totally knowledgeable of any potential dangers.
In the meantime, Senate Republican chief Mitch McConnell filed a short urging the courtroom to keep away from delaying the regulation’s implementation, evaluating TikTok to a harmful felony. Conversely, President-elect Donald Trump, who unsuccessfully sought to ban TikTok throughout his first time period in 2020, has shifted his stance, stating he would reassess the problem after taking workplace on January 20.
On the finish of the day, I do not assume that US officers are that preoccupied with non-public knowledge breaches – name me cynical, however I feel TikTok’s potential ban is simply one other a part of the US-China financial battle.