Congress recently made the decision to effectively ban the popular social media app, TikTok. While the directive may have been decked as a requirement for ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, to divest its hold on TikTok within nine months, the reality is no multi-billion-dollar entity would willingly relinquish control of its coveted algorithm to its competitors. Unsurprisingly, ByteDance has pledged to challenge the ruling in court if necessary, which seems to be an uphill battle.
According to The Verge, TikTok’s impending legal challenge will likely revolve around alleged infringement of both its own First Amendment rights and those of its 170 million US users. However, this promises to be no walk in the park given judges’ caution in overstepping on matters of national security where the legislative arm already has significant influence.
Frustrating as it is, the Supreme Court may give deference to the legislature’s will due to the delicate balance between free speech rights and national security matters. The contentious matter must pass through the lower courts before Supreme Court Justices Thomas and Alito can take a look at it. It’s important to bear in mind that legislative provisions made in the interest of “national security” have historically been given broad leeway; sometimes leading to actions that are seemingly extreme such as the pervasive profiling and treatment of Japanese-Americans during the Second World War, as highlighted in the Korematsu decision.
The TikTok debate has certainly been further intensified by its vilification as a propaganda tool purportedly used by China to target and influence impressionable Americans. It’s therefore no stretch to frame the motive for the ban as a countermeasure to a perceived psychological warfare operation by a foreign nation.
Skeptics may disregard this position as unfounded, but it’s important to remember that judges often default to prioritizing national security when faced with legal arguments. It remains to be seen how this issue will evolve as TikTok confronts its legal challenges, both in the US and its country of origin, China.