Summary
TikTok, with 170 million US users, faces a nationwide US ban starting January 19 unless its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, sells the platform.
A court rejected ByteDance’s bid to delay the ban, forcing TikTok to appeal to the Supreme Court.
The US government cites national security concerns over data collection, while TikTok argues its US user data is stored domestically.
President Biden may grant a 90-day extension, but the decision could fall to Trump, who has opposed banning TikTok.
It seems to me that simply exposing the possibility of Chinese interference to the public should be sufficient. Once the public is aware, then every individual’s personal, informed decision to use or not use TikTok is a protected form of political expression.
I expect that most Americans who use TikTok would choose to keep using it, but that’s an option that freedom of expression gives them. They have a right to consume Chinese propaganda if that’s what they want, in the same way that they have a right to listen to any speaker or read any book that they want to.