Supreme Court Backs Law Requiring TikTok to Be Sold or Banned
The company argued that the law, citing potential Chinese threats to the nation’s security, violated its First Amendment rights and those of its 170 million users.
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The company argued that the law, citing potential Chinese threats to the nation’s security, violated its First Amendment rights and those of its 170 million users.
The justices, who asked tough questions of both sides, showed skepticism toward arguments by lawyers for TikTok and its users.
The plaintiffs include a Texas rancher and a hip-hop artist who say banning the app violates their First Amendment rights. TikTok is paying their legal bills.
The justices are expected to rule quickly in the case, which pits national security concerns about China against the First Amendment’s protection of free speech.
The court, which hears arguments on Friday in a challenge to a law banning the app, has issued varying rulings when those two interests clashed.
The briefs, filed a week before oral arguments, offered sharply differing accounts of China’s influence over the site and the role of the First Amendment.