Duelling arguments take shape in the TikTok-ban case
Technology,Biden Administration,Trump Administration,Social Media,TikTok,China,Business,Supreme Court
Days ahead of the showdown in TikTok v Garland—and a fortnight before TikTok could vanish from Americans’ smartphones—the legal debate over the wildly popular social-media site is coming into focus. On one side of this Supreme Court dispute are the Biden administration and lawmakers who warn that TikTok’s links to the Chinese government threaten national security. On the other are ByteDance (TikTok’s parent company), free-speech advocates, some of the estimated 170m Americans who regularly scroll the app and Donald Trump, the president-elect.
The case, slated for oral argument on January 10th, may give the justices a bout of cognitive dissonance. The Supreme Court tends to defer to Congress and the executive branch when concerns about national security arise. Yet the justices also aggressively police freedom of speech.
