STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Some other news now - lawyers for TikTok are arguing before the Supreme Court in this hour.
A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Yeah, they're facing off against the Justice Department over whether a law banning the China-based viral video app will take effect in a few days.
INSKEEP: NPR's Bobby Allyn will be covering the story. Bobby, good morning.
BOBBY ALLYN, BYLINE: Good morning, Steve.
INSKEEP: What are you expecting to hear from each side?
ALLYN: TikTok's legal team will be making two arguments, one on behalf of the company and another on behalf of TikTokkers. And their cases boil down to this - shutting down a massively popular social media platform violates the free speech of TikTok's U.S. corporation and the millions of Americans who use it every day. And TikTok plans to argue that it has done quite a bit to distance itself from its Chinese parent company, ByteDance. The Department of Justice is expected to say, not so fast, anything short of completely splitting off from ByteDance poses a risk. And that's because ByteDance's home is in China, and China is a foreign adversary of the United States. Now, the Justice Department says Americans' personal data on the app is vulnerable, and even the possibility, Steve, of China trying to manipulate the views of U.S. citizens is just too risky.
INSKEEP: OK, so now, the timing is important here. The Supreme Court has a lot of power when they decide, oh, we should intervene before a deadline or let things play out, and we will take our time and rule on things later. In this case, they said, we're scheduling fast arguments for January 10, and the ban is supposed to start on January 19. So is it likely really to take effect?
ALLYN: We don't know. It's possible that the court will stay the January 19 start date as justices deliberate. Now, the court is here, Steve, really trying to thread a very difficult needle, right? They likely want to make sure the federal government doesn't silence the voices of millions of Americans, but also, they want to safeguard against possible covert influence from China. If the Supreme Court upholds the law, yes, it could start very soon. Apple and Google will then be legally required to remove TikTok from app stores. Web hosting firms like Oracle that support TikTok have to cut ties. It could be the beginning of the end for TikTok. Now, if the Supreme Court strikes down the law, well, then it's just business as usual for the app.
INSKEEP: It's interesting to think about this not only as a constitutional question - it's about free speech, among other things - but also a question of which branch of government has the power here. Congress passed this law, which the outgoing president signed. You have an incoming president who changed his mind about TikTok - used to be opposed to it. Now he says he favors it. A lot of his supporters use it. And he's about to take power, so what could he do after January 20 about TikTok?
ALLYN: He has enormous sway here. In recent months, as you mentioned, Trump has flip-flopped on TikTok. But now the former and future president really might be the decider here because if the Supreme Court decides to uphold this law, who then will be charged with interpreting it? That would be President-elect Trump, and he can tell his Justice Department to just not enforce it. Or he can try to cut some other deal and say, hey, actually TikTok is in compliance with the law. So a lot of eyes are on exactly what Trump is going to do here.
INSKEEP: OK. And of course, Congress would then face the question about whether they would want to assert their authority.
ALLYN: Yeah.
INSKEEP: But there's another group here. How are creators who use TikTok responding?
ALLYN: Yeah, in a number of ways. Some TikTokkers are promoting work-arounds already if a ban does take place - you know, getting on, like, a virtual private network to try to circumvent American cell towers. And others are saying, hey, TikTok might be banned soon, so how about you all jump on YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels? - which, Steve, is another reality of all of this. If TikTok is banned, the biggest winners are likely to be Google and Meta.
INSKEEP: Thanks for that insight. NPR's Bobby Allyn. Really appreciate it.
ALLYN: Thanks, Steve. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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