Shortly after Biden signed a bill to ban TikTok in April, the company and a consortium of users retaliated by filing a lawsuit accusing the federal government of violating First Amendment rights. In December, a federal appeals court upheld the ban, leaving TikTok with only one legal avenue to save itself: an appeal to the Supreme Court. Many of the same arguments were made during Friday’s hearing. Justice Brett Kavanaugh called the government’s data security rationale “strong.” Justices Elena Kagan and Neil Gorsuch questioned the government’s question of whether the app could host a “covert” Chinese manipulation operation, arguing that TikTok’s algorithm is not as transparent as that of other social media companies. that, “said Kagan. Fisher, who represented the creators involved in the case, said that the judge should not answer questions related to security, which are better. solved by broader data privacy laws. “But the question before you today this is narrower. The question is, is this law before you sustainable for security reasons? And the answer is probably no,” Fisher said in court. Justice expressed some doubts about whether the law actually limits TikTok’s freedom of expression, given the option to divest. “TikTok can continue to operate its own algorithm on its own terms, as long as it is not affiliated with ByteDance,” Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson said. If the ban goes into effect, Apple and Google will have to remove TikTok from the US. version of the app store, prevents new downloads from happening in the country. Internet hosting and data storage providers will also be prohibited from offering services to companies. Users with TikTok already downloaded to their devices may still have access, at least for a short time after the ban takes effect. Once removed from the app store, users will no longer be able to download updates to TikTok, and the app may become more buggy and difficult to use over time. TikTok’s lawyers told the judge that the app will go dark after January 19. Blake Reid, a technology law professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder, said the judges seemed to be targeting TikTok’s corporate structure, giving the app’s lawyers no time to argue. benefits of data security arguments. “I’m not sure that Tiktok will lose the argument, but because they spent a lot of time, they can’t make arguments about national security and privacy and security, which I think is the weakest part of the government’s case. “It is very possible that Tiktok chooses some votes ,” Rozenshtein said. “I think the three most likely would be Justice Sotomayor, Gorsuch, and maybe Kagan, but I’m struggling to see TikTok getting five votes, which is what it takes to strike down this law.” At a press conference after Friday’s hearing, Francisco said the arguments were “very good” and the judges “strongly questioned both sides.” It is unclear when the court will issue its decision, but Rozenshtein and Reid believe it will come sooner rather than later. Francisco, suggested that the judge could issue a time limit or order to stop the ban from taking effect as scheduled, but he gave no indication that he would consider it. The ban was imposed in an amicus brief filed last month, promising to find a “political” solution to save TikTok if it regains power. “President Trump has only the perfect dealmaking expertise, electoral mandate, and political will to negotiate a resolution to save his platform while addressing national security concerns,” Trump’s attorney D. John Sauer said in the filing. The court has not yet responded to the brief. If the judge upholds the ban, the deal with Trump could be TikTok’s last shot at survival.
