The United States Supreme Court this Friday supported the law that could force the social network TikTok to suspend its operations in the country before this Sunday, for not having separated from its parent company, the Chinese company ByteDance.
The ruling means that the 170 million Americans who use the app will be able to keep it installed on their devices, but starting January 19 they could stop receiving updates and be unable to download it again, which would eventually cause the platform to stop working.
The Supreme Court, however, does not clearly define in its ruling the future of TikTok in the United States, which will largely depend on what the president-elect, Donald Trump, decides, who during his first term (2016-2021) tried to ban the application, although now he is in favor of it continuing to operate.
In fact, the White House said this Monday and reaffirmed this Friday that Joe Biden’s Government will leave the decision of how to implement the law in the hands of Trump, given that he will take office on January 20, one day after the date scheduled for the entry into force of the ban.
In a statement, White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said: “Given the simple fact of the calendar, this Administration recognizes that actions to implement the law must fall to the next Administration, which will take office on Monday.”
Even after the Biden government hands over the implementation of the ruling to Trump, TikTok could choose to proactively suspend its operations in the United States.
During oral arguments before the Supreme Court last week, a lawyer for TikTok already warned that the social network “will go dark” on Sunday if it is not allowed to continue operating in the country, thus closing the door on a possible sale to an American buyer. .
For his part, Trump is currently exploring options to ensure the continuity of the platform, Florida Congressman Mike Waltz, chosen to be the next White House National Security Advisor, said in an interview on the Fox network on Wednesday.
Trump also said today on his social network Truth Social that he had addressed the TikTok controversy with the president of China, Xi Jinping, in the middle of a telephone conversation.
After the ruling was made public, the president-elect of the United States stated on this same social network that “everyone must respect it” and declared that his decision will be made “in the not-too-distant future,” but that he must first “review the situation”.
The ban on TikTok has its origins in a law that Congress approved in April 2024 with the support of Democrats and Republicans.
That legislation gave ByteDance nine months to sell TikTok’s US operations to an investor who was not considered an “adversary” of the country and established that, otherwise, it would be banned on January 19 for national security reasons. .
Despite political pressure, ByteDance has refused to sell TikTok and has chosen to defend itself in court, arguing that banning the application would violate the First Amendment of the US Constitution, which protects freedom of expression.
The judges of the Supreme Court, with a conservative majority, unanimously rejected TikTok’s arguments this Friday and endorsed the law approved by Congress.
The Biden administration and lawmakers who pushed for the rule maintain that it is essential for TikTok to disassociate itself from ByteDance for national security reasons, amid fears that the Chinese government could access the data of American users or influence public debate in the country.
Faced with these arguments, TikTok has repeatedly denied that it can be used as a tool for Beijing to influence American public opinion.
Trump talks to Xi
The president-elect of the United States, Donald Trump, reported this Friday morning that he had had a telephone conversation with the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, and that both will do “everything possible to make the world more peaceful and secure.” starting his mandate on Monday.
“The call has been very good for both China and the US. I hope we will solve many problems together. We talked about balancing trade, fentanyl, TikTok and many other topics. “President Xi and I will do everything we can to make the world more peaceful and secure,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social network.
This is the first call between the Chinese president and Trump since the latter left the White House in 2021.
Among the topics discussed in the conversation, Trump cited the TikTok application, which in two days would be affected by a US law that would prohibit application stores from offering it in the United States, considering that its users’ data is then reported to the Chinese authorities.
The application, which is currently downloaded by more than 170 million Americans, would stop working on Sunday in the United States unless its Chinese owner, ByteDance, gets rid of the platform.
The Supreme Court of the United States, meanwhile, has supported the viability of applying said law, ruling – as the federal Administration has already defended – that allowing it to continue operating in the US could lead to possible interference by the Chinese Government.
However, Trump has expressed his support for TikTok, raising questions about whether or not his Administration will prosecute companies that violate the aforementioned law.
During the electoral campaign that took him to the White House, Trump promised the imposition of new tariffs on Chinese imports, along similar lines to the trade war that he promoted during his first term (2017-2021), and in a context of tensions. with China on issues such as Taiwan, technology or the war in Ukraine.
Source: www.eldiario.es
