WASHINGTON: The lawyer for TikTok and its Chinese parent company ByteDance offered a warning during arguments at the top US court over a law that would compel the sale of the short-video app or ban it in the United States: If Congress could do this to TikTok, it could come after other companies, too.

The law, which was the subject of arguments before the nine Supreme Court judges on Friday, sets a Jan 19 deadline for ByteDance to sell the popular social media platform or face a ban on national security grounds. The companies have sought, at the very least, a delay in implementation of the law, which they say violates the US constitution’s protection against government abridgment of free speech.

Noel Francisco, representing TikTok and ByteDance, argued that Supreme Court endorsement of this law could enable statutes targeting other companies on similar grounds.

“AMC movie theatres used to be owned by a Chinese company. Under this theory, Congress could order AMC movie theatres to censor any movies that Congress doesn’t like or promote any movies that Congress wanted,” Francisco told the judges.

The judges signalled through their questions during the arguments that they were inclined to uphold the law, although some expressed serious concerns about its First Amendment implications.

TikTok is a platform used by about 170 million people in the United States, roughly half the country’s population. Congress passed the measure last year with overwhelming bipartisan support, as lawmakers cited the risk of the Chinese government exploiting TikTok to spy on Americans and carry out covert influence operations.

Jeffrey Fisher, the lawyer representing TikTok content creators who also have challenged the law, noted during the Supreme Court arguments that Congress with this measure was focusing on TikTok and not major Chinese online retailers including Temu.

“Would a Congress (that is) really worried about these very dramatic risks leave out an e-commerce site like Temu that has 70 million Americans using it?” Fisher asked. “It’s very curious why you just single out TikTok alone and not other companies with tens of millions of people having their own data taken, you know, in the process of engaging with those websites and equally, if not more, available to Chinese control.”

Democratic President Joe Biden signed the measure into law and his administration is defending it in this case. The deadline for divestiture is just one day before Republican Donald Trump, who opposes the ban, takes office as Biden’s successor.

Foreign adversaries

Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, arguing for the Biden administration in defending the law, said it was crucial that it take effect on Jan 19, as scheduled, in order to force ByteDance to act on divestiture.

“Foreign adversaries do not willingly give up their control over this mass communications channel in the United States,” Prelogar said.

Published in Dawn, January 12th, 2025