TikTok trial before the US Supreme Court: Here’s what was said today

“Whether you call (the law) for divestment or ban, one thing is clear: It is a burden on TikTok’s speech, so the First Amendment applies,” TikTok’s lawyers told the US Supreme Court on Friday.

Today’s Supreme Court hearings represent the beginning of the end TikTok’s long legal battle Against the American government. The session began at 10 a.m. ET and lasted just over two hours. During that period, TikTok’s lawyers and U.S. Attorney Elizabeth Prelogar presented their preliminary arguments and answered the justices’ questions.

Similar to previous court actions, the US government argued that the popular video app could pose a national security threat and is being used by the Chinese government to spy on Americans. TikTok has been steadfast in its denial of the accusations, saying that the 2024 law — which passed by wide margins in both chambers of Congress and signed into law by President Biden — violates the First Amendment rights of TikTok’s 170 million active U.S. users. The hearings come just nine days before the looming January 19 withdrawal or ban deadline.

Watch this: US vs. TikTok: What happens next?

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TikTok’s attorney, Noel Francisco, began the hearing. The judges asked several questions to understand the relationship between TikTok US and its China-based parent company — specifically, what the risk of “secret content manipulation” is and what exactly that means. For the purposes of the hearing, the phrase referred to the possibility that politically motivated actors could modify TikTok’s algorithms to change the videos users watch.

One of the sticking points during the hearing was secret evidence provided by the US government, which was left unresolved in the lower court proceedings. As the justices questioned Francisco, one of the judge’s questions emphasized that in this evidence, “the United States government admits that it has no evidence that TikTok engaged in secret manipulation of content in this country,” but the two sides disagreed on whether ByteDance had “responsive to the Republic of China’s demands.” Popular censorship of content outside China.

Prelogar concluded the hearing by saying in her opening statement: “TikTok’s massive data set will give the People’s Republic of China a powerful tool for harassment, recruitment, and espionage.” She raised concerns that not only users’ data was at risk, but also other people in their contacts, and expressed concern that the data of teenagers and young children in particular was at risk.

One of the most notable moments in the hearing was when Prelogar argued that ByteDance would use the social platform to sow discord among Americans and distract them from Chinese manipulation, to which Chief Justice Roberts responded, saying, “ByteDance may be trying, through TikTok, to get a hold of whether Americans will argue with… “If they do that, I say they will win.”

What will happen next with TikTok?

The next step is for the court to deliberate on the issue and ultimately decide the case. We do not know exactly when she will issue her decision.

If the Supreme Court decides that the law violates the First Amendment, the court can strike it down. If the Supreme Court finds that the law does not violate the First Amendment and upholds it, TikTok will only have a few days to find a US buyer for the app to comply with the January 19 deadline. ByteDance said it was prepared to shut down the app in the US if the court ruled against them, with Francisco saying TikTok would “disappear” on January 19.

The January 19 deadline is also the day before Trump’s inauguration. President-elect Trump recently indicated that he no longer opposes banning TikTok, a stark reversal from his position during his first term. Last week, Trump’s lawyers Submit a friend note In this case. They did not take sides, but instead asked the court to delay the ban to give Trump time to reach a “political solution,” though the brief did not provide any specific details about what that would look like. Either way, Trump won’t be able to do anything until he’s inaugurated on the 20th, so there may be a period of downtime.