TikTok ban: US supreme court to hear oral arguments over fate of app ? live updates
2m ago 15.54 CET What will happen to the TikTok app if it gets banned? New users will not be able to download TikTok from app stores and existing users will not be able to update the app, because the law prohibits any entity from facilitating the download or maintenance of the TikTok application. In a 13 December letter, US lawmakers told Apple and Alphabet?s Google, which operate the two main mobile app stores, that they must be ready to remove TikTok from their stores on 19 January. Cloud service provider Oracle could see some disruption to its work with TikTok. Oracle hosts TikTok?s US user data on its servers, reviews the app?s source code and delivers the app to the app stores. Google declined to comment, while Oracle and Apple did not respond to requests for comment. How would a Tiktok ban work in the US? Read more Share
13m ago 15.44 CET The federal law to ban TikTok overwhelmingly passed the Senate and House last April. It came a year after Montana was the first state to ban TikTok, although a judge blocked that law on free speech grounds. The law, known as the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, was signed by Joe Biden last spring. It came two years after the president banned TikTok on federal government phones and laptops. The US government has consistently said TikTok is a national security threat. Lawmakers say that China has the potential to control what people see on the app and spread propaganda. They also fear China could gain access to Americans? sensitive data and monitor their behavior. ?Your platform is basically an espionage platform for the Chinese Communist party,? said Josh Hawley, a Republican senator from Missouri, during a Senate judiciary committee hearing last January with TikTok?s CEO, Shou Chew. To date, the US government has not disclosed evidence that Beijing or ByteDance has used TikTok to manipulate Americans. Share
13m ago 15.44 CET TikTok has 170 million US users on its platform, about half of the country?s population, and the prospect of banning the app has brought together unlikely allies. On one side are those who herald the ban, saying TikTok has the potential to be manipulated by the Chinese Communist party, which includes a bipartisan coalition of Congress members. On the other side are countless influencers, civil liberties groups and, more recently, Donald Trump, who first proposed banning TikTok nearly five years ago. Now, Trump and others say prohibiting Americans from accessing the app would violate the free speech of tens of millions of people. ?The government?s attempt to cut US users off from speaking and sharing on TikTok is extraordinary and unprecedented,? said Patrick Toomey, deputy director of the American Civil Liberties Union?s National Security Project. Share
