Now that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit made its ruling, the next stop is the U.S. Supreme Court. In today’s decision, the court said, “We recognize that this decision has significant implications for TikTok and its users.” If the platform does not find an American owner, the court said it “will effectively be unavailable in the United States, at least for a time.”
“The Supreme Court has an established historical record of protecting Americans’ right to free speech, and we expect they will do just that on this important constitutional issue. Unfortunately, the TikTok ban was conceived and pushed through based upon inaccurate, flawed and hypothetical information, resulting in outright censorship of the American people. The TikTok ban, unless stopped, will silence the voices of over 170 million Americans here in the US and around the world on January 19th, 2025.”-TikTok statement on “X”
While Donald Trump returns to the White House, he has had a 180-degree change in thinking about TikTok. | Image credit-unknown
We don’t know what changed the president-elect’s mind, but during the campaign, he said that he would save TikTok despite calling it a national security threat during his first term. The problem is that the January 19th deadline for TikTok to sell to a U.S. company is now law and it takes place the day before Trump is to be inaugurated. However, today’s court decision says that a 90-day extension can be granted if there are signs that progress is being made on the divestiture of TikTok by ByteDance.
The popular short-form video app continues to be extremely popular in the U.S. serving up comedy, dancing, news, politics, and much more. If anything, the platform has become a legitimate source of information and entertainment for Americans and this seems to dovetail with the 180-degree change in thinking that the president-elect has had about TikTok.