It has become a cliché to lament that the U.S. government no longer does big, audacious things. But banning TikTok — a social media platform that roughly half of Americans use — would certainly qualify as big and audacious.
That outcome became more likely yesterday, even if it is far from assured. The Supreme Court unanimously upheld a bill that Congress passed last year forcing ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns TikTok, to sell it. If ByteDance refuses, as Chinese officials have so far insisted, the app will no longer be available for downloads or updates in the U.S. as early as tomorrow.
The potential ban of a media platform as large as TikTok has little precedent. It would create inconveniences and costs for millions of Americans. Many would have to alter their daily habits, and some would lose business opportunities.
Yet allowing a Chinese company — and, by extension, the Chinese government — to control a U.S. communication platform and vast amounts of Americans’ personal data also has major downsides. Congress and the Supreme Court have decided that the risks are large enough to justify the disruption. It’s a sign of the intensity of the U.S.-China competition for global influence.
Bipartisan worries
Both the boldness of the TikTok law and its bipartisan nature wouldn’t have seemed so unusual decades ago. U.S. history is full of ambitious projects whose rationale was at least partly to confront foreign adversaries, including the space program, the Interstate Highway System, the post-Sputnik investment in scientific research, and the industrial mobilization during World War II.
Forcing the sale of TikTok, or shutting it down, obviously doesn’t approach the scale of those projects. Still, it is far-reaching in its own way. It’s a big enough change that many Americans have found it hard to believe that the federal government will go through with it. And it is on the cusp of happening because a broad range of policymakers have decided the alternative is unacceptable.
During the oral arguments at the Supreme Court last week, Justice Brett Kavanaugh, a Republican appointee, talked about the possibility that China could use TikTok’s extensive data collection “to turn people, to blackmail people, people who, a generation from now, will be working in the F.B.I. or the C.I.A. or in the State Department.” Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, a Democratic appointee, also worried aloud about potential spying. Justice Sonya Sotomayor, another Democratic appointee, said, “It’s about the data control.”
TikTok claims that the Chinese government is unlikely to force the company to hand over sensitive information, such as users’ contacts. But that claim seems inconsistent with recent history, as the justices noted in their ruling. China “has engaged in extensive and yearslong efforts to accumulate structured datasets, in particular on U.S. persons, to support its intelligence and counterintelligence operations,” the ruling pointed out.
The vote in Congress also showed deep, bipartisan concern. The bill passed 360 to 58 in the House and 78 to 18 in the Senate. In addition to data security, members of Congress worried that China would use TikTok to spread misinformation and propaganda. Independent research has found that the platform already seems to do so, making it hard to find videos sympathetic to Taiwan, Tibet, Ukraine and other causes to which the Chinese Communist Party is hostile.
What’s next
The biggest question now is what the incoming Trump administration will do. When he was president before, Donald Trump helped start the crackdown on TikTok, calling it a national security risk. He has since changed his position for reasons that remain unclear. A TikTok investor and Republican donor apparently lobbied Trump shortly before he came out against a ban. He also enjoys his popularity on the app.
The Biden administration said yesterday that it would not enforce the ban in the brief window — 36 hours — after it takes effect and before Trump takes office. Trump is reportedly considering an executive order to delay the ban while his administration tries to help negotiate a sale to a non-Chinese owner. The Chinese government, for its part, insists that it will not allow ByteDance to sell TikTok. Beijing evidently considers TikTok too valuable.
The range of outcomes over the next few weeks remains wide — including a shutdown, a sale or some version of the status quo combined with a continuing legal fight.
Go inside the decision: To understand the Supreme Court’s reasoning, I recommend Adam Liptak’s article.
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