Today’s new decision by the US Supreme Court says they are likely to uphold the country’s ban on the short-form video site TikTok. The ban is supposed to start on January 19, unless a court orders a temporary stay. TikTok has been under fire from US lawmakers for years thanks to the app’s connection to China. After all, TikTok is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance.
A number of US lawmakers have previously called the app a huge national security threat, accusing it of sending propaganda messages from the Chinese government to America’s teenagers and stealing personal data from subscribers. Byte Dance has until January 19 to sell TikTok or be banned in the US. The TikTok team maintains that they have not done anything illegal. But during two hours of oral arguments heard today, the justices appeared to see the issue not as a First Amendment question but as one about regulating a foreign application.
To date, TikTok has over 100 million users in the US, and during his first term, President-elect Donald Trump almost managed to ban the app through an executive order. He also tried to sell TikTok to an American company. In September 2020, then-President Trump said he had a deal to close with Oracle-owned TikTok and Walmart.
In recent years, Trump has apparently changed his feelings about TikTok and seems less interested in banning the platform as he did during his first term. During his 2024 election campaign, Trump said: “To everyone who wants to save TikTok in America, vote for Trump.” The new president’s new love for TikTok was seemingly part of a plan to win the youth vote.
To help him with this demographic, Trump reportedly took advice from his 18-year-old son Barron, who advised his dad to appear on Joe Rogan’s podcast, which turned out to be a very successful move. It’s possible that Barron convinced his dad that siding with TikTok would help him politically with teenage voters.
While the deadline is Jan. 19, the day before Trump is sworn in as the new US president, a 90-day extension may be granted if there are signs a deal to sell TikTok is on the way. Ironically, in his second term, Donald Trump seems ready, willing and able to save TikTok, but what matters most is the Supreme Court showing a more hostile attitude towards TikTok and perhaps a ban is more likely than ever.
Source: myphone.gr
