The fate of a law that would likely ban social media platform TikTok in the United States goes before the Supreme Court on Friday as the justices consider whether to block it.
The nine justices on the conservative-majority court will hear oral arguments from lawyers for TikTok, some of its users and the Biden administration, with at least a preliminary decision likely in days, if not hours.
The law in question, enacted with broad bipartisan support, requires China-based TikTok owner ByteDance to divest itself of the company by Jan. 19, the day before President-elect Donald Trump takes office. If no sale takes place, the platform used by millions of Americans would be banned.
TikTok and some of its users sued to block the measure, saying it violates their free speech rights under the Constitution’s First Amendment.
The court will be weighing those arguments against the government’s defense of the law on national security grounds over concerns that the Chinese government could exert influence over the platform.
Adding further complexity, the court could quickly issue an order saying whether it will provisionally block the law before it issues a final ruling on the free speech question.
The case has a fraught and complicated political history.
