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Supreme Court Signals Support for TikTok Ban, Will Other Companies Be Banned Next?


Well, folks, it looks like TikTok’s days in the U.S. might be numbered.

Looks like the Supreme Court is about to give it the boot.

Both liberal and conservative justices teamed up to question whether banning the app really violates free speech.

Or will this ban stop Beijing from brainwashing our youth?

Justice Kavanaugh mentioned that there is a real fear of Chinese indoctrination.

ByteDance has until just before President Trump’s big return to sell TikTok.

If not, it will be time to delete the app.

But TikTok’s lawyer is saying if this happens to them, what other company will be banned?

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Good point.

Perhaps it is time we look closer into the ownership of influential companies.

NY Daily News reports:

Supreme Court justices Friday sounded likely to uphold a bipartisan law that could force TikTok to shut down in the U.S. in just a few days time.

During more than two hours of arguments, justices from across the political spectrum seemed skeptical of the social media company’s claim that a law banning the app — owned by Chinese-based ByteDance — would violate the free speech rights of the owners and TikTok’s 170 million American users.

“It doesn’t’ say, ‘TikTok, you can’t speak,’” liberal Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson said.

“The law doesn’t say TikTok has to shut down. It says ByteDance has to (sell TikTok),” conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett said, referring to the law’s Jan. 19 deadline for the Chinese company to sell the app’s American operation.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh, a conservative appointed by President-elect Trump in his first term, sounded open to the government’s claim that the law was intended to prevent possible Chinese indoctrination of a generation of American youth.

“That seems like a huge concern for the future of the country,” said Kavanaugh, who has two teenage daughters.

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The top court did not say when it might rule. But the law goes into effect a week from Sunday, the day before Trump is inaugurated, unless the Supreme Court blocks it.

If this ban goes through, what other companies could be targeted?

Reuters adds:

The lawyer for TikTok and its Chinese parent company ByteDance offered a warning during Supreme Court arguments over a law that would compel the sale of the short-video app or ban it in the United States: If Congress could do this to TikTok, it could come after other companies, too.

The law, which was the subject of arguments before the nine justices on Friday, sets a Jan. 19 deadline for ByteDance to sell the popular social media platform or face a ban on national security grounds. The companies have sought, at the very least, a delay in implementation of the law, which they say violates the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment protection against government abridgment of free speech.
Noel Francisco, representing TikTok and ByteDance, argued that Supreme Court endorsement of this law could enable statutes targeting other companies on similar grounds.

“AMC movie theaters used to be owned by a Chinese company. Under this theory, Congress could order AMC movie theaters to censor any movies that Congress doesn’t like or promote any movies that Congress wanted,” Francisco told the justices.
The justices signaled through their questions during the arguments that they were inclined to uphold the law, although some expressed serious concerns about its First Amendment implications.

Guess where all the kids are going to go if TikTok is banned?

Could be Instagram and then X.

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Maybe Elon Musk could step in?

As for the content creators, what percent of their followers will follow them to their next platform?



 

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