Hope you’re ready for a flood of dumbassery.
The end times are here– well, for TikTok in the U.S., at least.
On January 17th, the Supreme Court ruled that the ban of the popular social media platform if it doesn’t divest itself from Chinese ownership is constitutional. This affirms an appeals court’s previous ruling, claiming that the sell-or-ban mandate does not violate the First Amendment.
There is no doubt that, for more than 170 million Americans, TikTok offers a distinctive and expansive outlet for expression, means of engagement, and source of community. But Congress has determined that divestiture is necessary to address its well-supported national security concerns regarding TikTok’s data collection practices and relationship with a foreign adversary. For the foregoing reasons, we conclude that the challenged provisions do not violate petitioners’ First Amendment rights.
This decision was reached just a day after a White House official stated that the ban, set to be enacted just one day before Donald Trump assumes the Presidency, would be “up to the next administration to implement,” which implies that the Biden administration essentially has no plans to do much of anything related to the ban in their final hours.
No one is quite sure how Trump plans to handle the ban, but The Washington Post reported that he may be considering a suspension of the ban by 60-90 days via executive order. This would allow time to either broker a sale (which neither TikTok nor parent company ByteDance want to do), or find some other solution.
TikTok has yet to reveal what they plan to do come January 19th. But in a video statement released a little after the ruling was public, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew expressed thanks to Trump more than once.
Archive:
I want to thank President Trump for his commitment to work with us to find a solution that keeps TikTok available in the United States.
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew
…
We are grateful and pleased to have the support of a President who truly understands our platform.
The Supreme Court was not exactly inclined towards intervening on TikTok’s behalf during the hearings last week. TikTok maintains that this ban is a violation of free speech for its tens of millions of users in the US.
Source: People
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