The Supreme Court isn’t making Donald Trump’s life easy.
Trump is facing a thorny issue right out of the gate.
And the Supreme Court stuck Donald Trump in one tough spot on his first day in office.
The Supreme Court upholds TikTok ban
170 million Americans use the video sharing app TikTok.
TikTok’s created an entire industry of influencers and content creators who count on their viral videos to generate income.
Most Americans think TikTok is an app where they watch videos of people dancing.
But TikTok is also an app created by the Chinese Communist Party to spy on Americans.
TikTok’s parent company ByteDance transmits user data back to Communist China.
Communist China also manipulates TikTok’s algorithm to pump anti-American and pro-communist propaganda.
Joe Biden signed a law banning TikTok unless ByteDance divested itself to an American company.
That law was set to go into effect on January 19.
TikTok sued to stop the law, claiming it was a First Amendment violation.
48 hours before the ban was set to go into effect, the Supreme Court handed down a 9-0 decision upholding the ban.
The Justices issued the ruling per curiam, meaning that it was from the Court and not any one single Justice.
In their ruling, the Justices acknowledged TikTok’s popularity.
“There is no doubt that, for more than 170 million Americans, TikTok offers a distinctive and expansive outlet for expression, means of engagement, and source of community,” the ruling read.
But the Justices said Congress laid out well-reasoned national security justifications to ban TikTok.
“But Congress has determined that divestiture is necessary to address its well-supported national security concerns regarding TikTok’s data collection practices and relationship with a foreign adversary,” the ruling added.
The Court added that Congress was only banning TikTok due to valid national security concerns and wasn’t proposing a broad-based ban on video sharing apps.
“The challenged provisions further an important Government interest unrelated to the suppression of free expression and do not burden substantially more speech than necessary to further that interest,” the ruling added.
“The record before us adequately supports the conclusion that Congress would have passed the challenged provisions based on the data collection justification alone,” the Court continued.
Gorsuch notes the commonsense realities in word of warning
Justice Neil Gorsuch joined the ruling but had a word of warning that this law may not achieve its intended objective.
“Whether this law will succeed in achieving its ends, I do not know. A determined foreign adversary may just seek to replace one lost surveillance application with another,” Gorsuch argued.
Incoming National Security Advisor Michael Waltz told Fox News that Donald Trump would work within the law to keep TikTok from going dark as long as a viable sale option is on the table.
“Well, President Trump and this is in line with the legislation. Well, we will put measures in place to keep TikTok from going dark in the legislation allows for an extension as long as a viable deal is on the table,” Waltz stated.
“And then, you know, essentially that buys President Trump time to keep TikTok going. It’s been a great platform for him and his campaign to get his America first message out. But at the same time, he wants to protect their data. You know, conservatives don’t want the FBI and they certainly don’t want the Chinese communists getting their passwords, getting their data and being able to overly influence the American people,” Waltz added.
Trump supporters Elon Musk and Kevin O’Leary are rumored to be in the running to buy TikTok.
Donald Trump won in November in large part because Americans were freer to organize and share Trump’s America First message on social media than they had been in the last election.
Polls also show Trump holds a 59% approval rating for his transition among 18–29-year-olds.
Preserving TikTok by facilitating a sale to an American company would protect national security and serve Trump’s political needs.
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