In less than two weeks, social media platform TikTok will be shut down in the US, unless it gets a reprieve from the Supreme Court on Friday. The platform estimates that small business owners will lose US$1 billion a month in revenues if it closes.
TikTok, which has 170m US users, is under threat in the US because of alleged links between its owner ByteDance and the Chinese government. These allegations resulted in a new law which will see the platform banned unless ByteDance divests.
The issue has been rumbling through the US courts for much of 2024 and comes to a head on Friday January 10, when the Supreme Court will have the final say on whether to back the law or strike it down. The proposed ban has already led to numerous protests in Washington DC by the platform’s most engaged users.
In an intriguing development, incoming US President Donald Trump has asked the court to delay the ban while he negotiates a “political resolution”. According to the BBC, his lawyer filed a legal brief that says Trump “opposes banning TikTok” and “seeks the ability to resolve the issues at hand through political means once he takes office”. As things stand, the ban comes into effect on January 19, just a day before Donald Trump commences his new four-year term as POTUS.
Trump, who met with TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew, said “the case represents an unprecedented, novel, and difficult tension between free-speech rights on one side, and foreign policy and national security concerns on the other”.
In a statement, TikTok said: “We’re pleased with the Supreme Court order. We believe the Court will find the TikTok ban unconstitutional so the over 170 million Americans on our platform can continue to exercise their free speech rights.”
