Supreme Court Appears Poised to Shut Down TikTok

“The Supreme Court seemed inclined on Friday to uphold a law requiring TikTok be sold or effectively be shut down in the United States,” the New York Times reports.

“Even as several justices expressed concerns that the law was in tension with the First Amendment, a majority appeared satisfied that it was aimed at TikTok’s ownership rather than its speech.”

“The government offered two rationales for the law: combating covert disinformation from China and barring it from harvesting private information from Americans. The court was divided over whether the first justification was sufficient to justify it. But several justices seemed troubled by the possibility that China could use data culled from the app for espionage or blackmail.”