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TikTok Faces Shutdown in US After Court Rejects ByteDance Challenge

TikTok

The US Supreme Court has maintained a statute that mandates the sale of TikTok by its parent firm, ByteDance, based in China, by January 19, or else the app will be banned nationally.

ByteDance had contested the bill, claiming it violates the First Amendment rights of the more than 170 million American users of the video-sharing app TikTok. But the Supreme Court rejected that reasoning, therefore the legislation could be enforced.

The US government and senators have voiced their concerns about ByteDance’s alleged links to the Chinese government, which has led to the current crisis. Concerning data privacy and possible foreign influence, they argue that TikTok is a threat to national security.

China has always denied these accusations, stating that TikTok is safe for users around the world.

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Theoretically motivated political pressures may be behind the push to limit TikTok, according to certain news sources. Some worry that this would drive users away from Facebook and other US-based social media networks and onto competing apps with what they see as better features.

The so-called “TikTok refugees” looking for a new platform are allegedly responsible for this week’s spike in downloads of RedNote, another Chinese software. The meteoric climb to the top of the app store ranks by RedNote is indicative of the changing tastes of TikTok users.

Some Chinese media outlets have reported an unexpected turn of events: former president Donald Trump, who wanted to prohibit TikTok before, may now be in favour of the app. They say he has spoken highly of TikTok and mentioned rumours that the CEO of the company would be in attendance at his next inauguration.

Debates on the platform’s future are ongoing, and ByteDance is now under pressure to locate a buyer for TikTok located in the US to prevent a ban. The situation is still fluid.

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