The Supreme Court seemed likely to uphold a law that would ban TikTok in the United States beginning Jan. 19 unless the popular social media program is sold by its China-based parent company.
Hearing arguments in a momentous clash of free speech and national security concerns, the justices seemed persuaded by arguments that the national security threat posed by the company’s connections to China overrides concerns about restricting the speech, either of TikTok or its 170 million users in the United States.
TikTok’s lawyer says Supreme Court justices questioned both sides closely and they’re hopeful about the decision.
“They put us through our paces,” Noel Francisco said at a news conference after arguments.
The app has a massive U.S. user base amounting to half of all Americans, he said.
Francisco emphasized that the U.S. has not presented evidence that China has not attempted to manipulate content on TikTok’s U.S. platform or gather U.S. user data through TikTok.
“This country has never taken a step of shutting down a speech platform, much less such an important speech platform,” he said. “You don’t shut down a speech platform because you’re worried about speech that’s dangerous.”
In a news conference, Paul Tran, co-founder of the skin-care company Love and Pebble, said he and his wife built the company on the app and is hoping for a solution that would protect national security and preserve access to the app.
“The First Amendment isn’t a relic of the past. It’s a living promise that must be defended in our digital age,” he said.
Read the latest updates by the Associated Press.
