Washington — The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday upheld a new legislation that imposes strict requirements on TikTok, the popular social media platform owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. The law mandates TikTok to dissociate from ByteDance or face a ban in the United States, asserting that this stipulation does not infringe upon the First Amendment rights of TikTok or its users.
The decision, which was unanimous and without a signed opinion, allows the law to come into force this Sunday at midnight. The ruling addresses longstanding worries during both the Trump and Biden administrations regarding TikTok’s implications for national security.
The Justice Department defended the legislation in front of the Supreme Court, highlighting significant concerns about China’s ability to collect data from TikTok’s 170 million U.S. users and potentially manipulate the content to advance its geopolitical agenda. The court’s decision was primarily based on the danger posed by potential data collection by China via ByteDance.
In their deliberation, the justices noted that the law, termed the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, is designed to thwart China—a recognized foreign adversary—from exploiting its control over ByteDance to gather personal data of U.S. TikTok users. This, they determined, constitutes an important government interest, meeting criteria for intermediate scrutiny in constitutional analysis.
Intermediate scrutiny requires that a law must advance an important government interest and must closely align with achieving that interest. The court found that the prohibitions and the divestiture directive of the act meet these conditions, as they are not broader than necessary to address concerns over China’s access to sensitive American data.
TikTok is known for collecting extensive user data, including location details and contact lists. This collection capability underlines fears that the data could allow China to monitor federal employees, build profiles suitable for blackmail, and engage in corporate espionage. The legislation’s specific targeting of TikTok, according to the court, was justified given the potential threats highlighted.
Moreover, the court recognized the government’s interest in limiting China’s control over TikTok’s influential recommendation algorithm which can subtly influence the content that users see in the U.S. However, it noted that the case record supports the notion that even the data collection concern alone justifies the legislative measures.
Justice Neil Gorsuch, in a separate concurring opinion, agreed with the court’s decision but expressed reservations about the legal reasoning. He emphasized that the First Amendment strongly protects editorial decisions, which complicates distinguishing benign content curation from covert manipulative practices.
The ruling comes as President-elect Donald Trump, who is set to assume office shortly, had requested the court to delay the law’s enforcement to seek a political settlement. Nevertheless, following the court’s decision, the enforcement will initially be the responsibility of the Biden administration, which has stated that it will not enforce the law until the new administration begins on January 20.
While the Biden administration had earlier concurred with the need for American ownership or management of TikTok to neutralize security risks, the timing of the transition leaves the next steps to the incoming Trump administration.
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