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The Supreme Court agreed to hear arguments challenging the law that's set to ban TikTok in the US unless it divests from its Chinese owners.
The hearing is scheduled for two hours on Jan. 10, nine days before the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act is scheduled to take effect. It could be TikTok's last chance to remain on Google Play and Apple’s App Store.
The court is limiting the scope of the arguments to one main question: Does the law violate the First Amendment? The measure, which was folded into a supplemental spending bill and signed into law by President Biden in April, received widespread bipartisan support over concerns that a foreign adversary is collecting data on US citizens through the app. That's not too hard to believe in the context of ongoing hacking campaigns like the Salt Typhoon telecom incident.
However, free speech advocates say the law is an overreach of government power that violates the Constitution by shutting down an avenue for Americans to receive information and express themselves. Content creators who rely on income from TikTok are also not a fan of the ban. Some are expected to present arguments on Jan. 10, Time reports.
President-elect Donald Trump started the TikTok crackdown during his first administration with an executive order that also called for a divestiture. Biden then rescinded that executive order and told his administration to conduct their own investigation, culminating in Biden approving the ban.
During a recent press briefing, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said, "This is not about banning the app. This is about preventing [China] from being able to exploit data gathered on many Americans." She referred any other questions to the Justice Department.
As CBS News notes, Trump could ask the DOJ not to enforce the law. He could also delay its implementation by 90 days if he can prove ByteDance is progressing toward a divestiture.
For now, Trump hasn't said what he plans to do. In March, he said he no longer supported a TikTok ban because that would help his then-nemesis Meta and its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg. More recently, he said he has a "little bit of a warm spot in [his] heart" for TikTok because younger people like it so much and that demographic helped him electorally in the election.
On Monday, Trump met with TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew in Florida.