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TikTok is taking its fight to the US Supreme Court

Dec 18, 2024, 1:32pm EST
tech
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Mike Blake/Reuters
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The News

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew is pulling every lever he has to overturn the US ban on his social media platform. This week, that means engaging the highest court in the US and appealing straight to the president-elect himself.

The Supreme Court said Wednesday it will hear TikTok’s case that the ban violates the First Amendment, giving the Chinese-owned app another fighting chance after an Appeals court upheld the law earlier this month. But TikTok isn’t out of the water — it will have to present its case to SCOTUS on Jan. 10, just nine days before the ban is due to take effect.

A chart showing the percentage of adults who support or oppose a TikTok ban, with the percentage of those supporting it dropping sharply
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Know More

Aside from SCOTUS, TikTok may have an unlikely ally in President-elect Donald Trump, who sought a ban on the app just four years ago. However, Trump’s TikTok stardom during the most recent election season may have bought the app some kudos points with the future president, who credits some of his win to young voters on the platform.

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“I have a warm spot in my heart for TikTok,” he said Monday, the same day he met with Chew at Mar-a-Lago, The Hill reported. Trump added he would “take a look” at blocking the ban.

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Rachyl’s view

It could benefit Trump to stand by his campaign promise to “save” the app. Keeping TikTok around puts pressure on Meta and its CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who Trump has taken shots at over the platform’s alleged intervention in the 2020 election. Meta has attempted to make peace with a $1 million donation to Trump’s inauguration (as did Amazon and OpenAI’s Sam Altman). Don’t be surprised if a hefty contribution from TikTok comes his way soon.

Even with Trump’s support, TikTok still faces hurdles to undoing the law, which requires it either sell to a US company or be forced out the country. Trump alone can’t make the ban disappear. If TikTok does sell to a US entity — which parent company ByteDance has said it has no plans to do — the app could continue operations in the US but potentially be gutted of the “secret sauce” (its algorithm) that made it so popular in the first place.

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Nonetheless, billionaire Frank McCourt is mounting a bid for the app sans algorithm. Shark Tank’s Kevin O’Leary, former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, and former Activision Blizzard chief Bobby Kotick have also expressed interest.

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