Supreme Court slams First Amendment arguments by TikTok as app gives last ditch effort to stop US ban
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Justices spent more than two hours arguing over whether a ban on the app would be infringing on the First Amendment. Supreme Court justices slammed First Amendment arguments made by TikTok as the popular social media app tries to avoid a U.S. ban in the coming days.
![[TikTok educational influencer, Tiffany Cianci livestreams outside the U.S. Supreme Court Building as the court hears oral arguments]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/10/18/GettyImages-2193278455.jpg)
Lawyers for ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, went before the Supreme Court on Friday, days before the ban is set to begin. The government passed a ban on the app, unless it is sold, citing national security concerns and its ties to China’s communist party. The ban is set to begin in just days.
TikTok has argued that the app should be able to exist in the U.S. under free speech claims. “Congress doesn’t care about what’s on TikTok,” Chief Justice John Roberts said during oral arguments. “They don’t care about the expression. That’s shown by the remedy. They’re not saying TikTok has to stop. They’re saying the Chinese have to stop controlling TikTok.”.
Many of the app’s Gen-Z users are not happy facing a potential ban. Lawmakers were concerned that the Chinese government could obtain Americans’s data and “covertly” manipulate what U.S. users see or spread misinformation and propaganda. One example, used on Friday, outlined the possibility of the Chinese government collecting the data of a young TikTok user who eventually grew up to become a member of the military or federal government.
