The American Supreme Court unanimously approved on Friday January 17 the entry into force of a law threatening the very popular social network with an imminent ban if its Chinese parent company refuses to sell it.
The Court’s nine justices concluded that the challenged law did not violate the First Amendment of the US Constitution guaranteeing freedom of expression. The law, adopted in April and which is due to come into force on Sunday, sets a deadline of January 19 for TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, to transfer the application to another owner, under penalty of ban in the United States. “There is no doubt that, for more than 170 million Americans, TikTok provides an important mode of expression, interaction and belonging to a community. But Congress determined that its divestiture was necessary to meet to his well-founded concerns in matters of national security”, estimate the nine judges of the Court.
They therefore conclude that the contested law does not violate the First Amendment of the American Constitution guaranteeing freedom of expression. In the midst of a strategic confrontation between the United States and China, the American Congress adopted this law in April by a large bipartisan majority, bringing together elected Democrats and Republicans. It aims to prevent the risks of espionage and manipulation by Chinese authorities of TikTok users.
Transfer or extinction?
The law, immediately promulgated by President Joe Biden, sets a deadline of January 19 for the parent company of the social network, ByteDance, to transfer the application to another owner. The company is counting on the sympathy of President-elect Donald Trump, who will take office on January 20 and has confided his “soft spot” for TikTok. One of the solutions envisaged in the event of the law being maintained would be for ByteDance to resell its shares to non-Chinese investors, a possibility that the company has constantly rejected.
But in the event of a ban, it will be up to the American government to force mobile application stores to remove the social network from their platform. TikTok would then no longer be downloadable. Users who already have the app would keep it but would no longer be able to update it, which would ultimately make it difficult or even impossible to use. According to The Information website, the company is preparing to make its application completely inaccessible on Sunday, which would go beyond the provisions of the law.
As the social network is still accessible elsewhere than in the United States, American Internet users who wish could use a VPN, software that allows sites and application stores to be deceived about their geographic location.
In an internal note, cited by the specialized media The Vergethe company informed its employees that its offices would remain “open, although the situation is still not resolved by January 19”, the deadline for transferring the application to another owner.