TikTok likely to shut down Sunday after Supreme Court upholds ban law – National & International News – FRI 17Jan2025

TikTok likely to shut down Sunday after Supreme Court upholds ban law. Security or censorship?

Israeli cabinet ratifies ceasefire deal after delay. Ceasefire, hostage exchange to begin Sunday.

NATIONAL NEWS

TikTok likely to shut down Sunday after Supreme Court upholds ban law 

The Supreme Court issued a decision today rejecting an appeal by ByteDance, parent company of video-sharing app TikTok, against a law passed last year requiring ByteDance to either be sold to a non-Chinese buyer, or for the app to be removed from app stores in the US. ByteDance had sued t0 block enforcement of the law citing First Amendment objections. 

The Justices seemed satisfied that the US had a legitimate security interest in seeking to ban TikTok. TikTok, like every social media site, collects data on its users. The federal government contended that the app’s Chinese ownership made this mass data collection on Americans an unacceptable risk. Bills seeking to similarly rein in mass data collection by social media companies like Facebook never seem to gain any traction in Congress.

If the purpose of this law was to protect Americans’ data from China, then it seems to have backfired spectacularly. News of the approaching US ban has sent American TikTok users scrambling to find an alternative. Currently, the most downloaded app in the US is RedNote, a Chinese social media app used mostly within China itself. Another popular alternative, Lemon8, is also owned by ByteDance.

Security or censorship?

It is worth noting that there has been no discussion around banning the apps Temu and Shein, which are also Chinese-owned apps which have been downloaded by millions of Americans. 

Following the passage of the law last year, Sen. Mitt Romney directly linked the push to ban TikTok to pro-Palestinian content being shared on the app, and the resulting “awful PR” for Israel. Romney was not alone in drawing a direct line between the pro-Israel lobby in the US and lobbying efforts for the bill to ban TikTok. This was widely discussed before the law was passed. It was only after the ban proved so unpopular that an effort was made to put distance between the Israel lobby and the TikTok ban, with some even declaring it “antisemitic” to draw any connection.

Pro-Palestine activists have lamented the loss of TikTok in the US. They will continue to share information on other platforms but say their content has faced censorship on platforms including Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.

Trump to the rescue? 

The Biden administration has said they will leave enforcement of the law up to President-elect Trump, who will be sworn in the following day after TikTok is supposed to go dark. Immediately after this announcement, TikTok’s CEO Shou Chew posted a video thanking Trump for his efforts to keep TikTok available to American users. Following Chew’s post, Trump posted on TruthSocial saying the court’s ruling should be respected and that he would have to “review the situation”.

Chew met with Trump in December, who said he had a “warm spot” for the app. Trump has said that he believes TikTok helped him to win the 2024 election. According to Chew, content related to Donald Trump generated 60 billion views on TikTok ahead of the election. 

Trump had previously been in contact with potential Western buyers for the platform. Some names that have been floated include Elon Musk, who owns Twitter, and Mark Zuckerberg, The CEO of Facebook’s parent company Meta, and a few wild cards. It’s not clear whether any of these discussions have meaningfully progressed. 

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Israeli cabinet ratifies ceasefire deal after delay 

Today, both Israel’s small security cabinet and its full cabinet voted to ratify the ceasefire deal with Hamas announced on Wednesday. The full cabinet reportedly approved the deal by a vote of 24 to 8. This should mean that the ceasefire and the exchange of hostages and prisoners should both commence on Sunday. It remains to be seen how well the fragile truce will hold up over the first 6-week phase, or whether the truce will outlast the first phase. 

Two of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s far-right coalition partners, Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir, voted against the ceasefire deal, as did at least six others. Both had threatened to quit the government if the deal was approved. This could potentially bring about the fall of Netanyahu’s government, forcing an election. 

There is no word yet as to whether either Smotrich or Ben-Gvir’s parties are following through on their threats. If there are to be any announcements of that kind, they may come Saturday evening after observance of the Jewish Sabbath.

Yesterday, Yair Lapid, leader of the main opposition party, promised to shore up Netanyahu’s coalition in order to get the ceasefire deal through. There’s been no public indication yet that the two bitter political rivals are about to join forces.

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