News that the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear communist Chinese government-tied TikTok’s case comes exactly one month before the app is set to lose its American market.
After multiple recent legal defeats at the D.C. circuit appeals court, TikTok is still frantically determined to halt the U.S. government ultimatum placed on the app before the Jan. 19 deadline. The U.S. Supreme Court has announced it will hear the app’s case on Jan. 10, per The Washington Times. TikTok’s ownership by Chinese company ByteDance and its ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) government have raised bipartisan concerns over national security risks.
The U.S. Supreme Court justices will review TikTok’s claim that the ban violates the First Amendment, a claim which the circuit court previously rejected in light of TikTok’s security risks. The CCP government owns a board seat and a financial stake in TikTok’s parent ByteDance.
Experts have previously emphasized in comments to MRC how dangerous TikTok is. Fox News China expert Gordon Chang said that TikTok is untrustworthy and the CEO can’t necessarily guarantee how TikTok data is used by the CCP. Scott Kieff, a former member of the Defense Intelligence Community, told MRC that the U.S. should believe China when it reveals that it is being nefarious, and former Deputy National Security Adviser KT McFarland highlighted the disturbing ways in which the Chinese government can use and manipulate TikTok to influence Americans.
Despite the platform’s flailing defense attempts, TikTok’s communist Chinese government ties have long raised concerns. Yintao Yu, a former executive for ByteDance, alleged in a 2023 lawsuit that the CCP has backdoor access to TikTok user data. Not only that, but TikTok has a censorship track record too. As of Sept. 2022, MRC revealed that TikTok “permanently banned” 11 pro-free speech organizations. In 2023, MRC ranked TikTok among the worst censors of the year after it deleted hundreds of thousands of videos related to the ongoing Hamas-Israel conflict. TikTok is even now bragging about its COVID-19 and election-related censorship as it tries to halt a Canadian government ban.
The Supreme Court did agree to expedite its usual months-long process in light of the looming ultimatum deadline. “We believe the court will find the TikTok ban unconstitutional so the over 170 million Americans on our platform can continue to exercise their free speech rights,” TikTok spokesman Michael Hughes claimed, according to The Washington Times.
Conservatives are under attack. Contact TikTok via email at communitymanager@tiktok.com and demand Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment and provide transparency. If you have been censored, contact us at the Media Research Center contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.
