TikTok’s First Global Social Media Hit is a Symbolic Liferaft, and the U.S. Will Shut Down Project Texas
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But to TikTok executives, that is merely a symbolic life raft, since ByteDance has consistently indicated that the platform, China’s first global social media hit, is not for sale. Furthermore, export control laws in China prevent TikTok’s algorithm from being sold unless Beijing regulators bless the transaction, something China experts have said the country is not likely to do.
Undoing Project Texas now would be “a massive effort” involving many engineers, someone who worked on it recently told me. TikTok only has one option when it comes to shutting the app down, and that is to remove it from US app stores. It’s unclear how this would impact the experience of using TikTok outside of the US. It is an event that is unprecedented.
TikTok backed itself into this corner technically, too. It spent $1 billion to convince China that US data isn’t going to there. Amazingly, TikTok started Project Texas before the government gave its blessing, which of course never came. US data is now walled off in separate infrastructure maintained by Oracle, which will have to legally stop working with TikTok as of the 19th.
The Supreme Court heard an appeal by TikTok that argued the ban violated the free speech rights of both users and the company.
The Supreme Court Upholds the TikTok Ban, Threating App’s Existence in the U.S., Revisited
The decision in Bush v Gore is not meant to have greater precedential value, as compared to the landmark 2000 ruling. “But this will be a very important decision,” he said. “And it gives enormous power to Congress to act on data privacy questions.”
“Do we usually assume that the best remedy for problematic speech is counter speech?” said Gorsuch, since TikTok is considering including a description on its app which indicates that some content could be covertly manipulated by China.
U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, representing the federal government, quickly shot that down with this analogy: “Imagine if you walked into a store and I had a sign that said one of 1 million products in this store causes cancer,” she told the court. “That is not going to put you on notice about what product is actually jeopardizing your health.”
The incoming administration will have to implement the law following the Supreme Court’s ruling, according to the Biden White House press secretary. “Given the sheer fact of timing, this administration recognizes that actions to implement the law simply must fall to the next administration, which takes office on Monday,” she said.
All eyes are now on President-elect Donald Trump. He filed a brief with the Supreme Court ahead of last week’s oral arguments asking that the justices delay a ruling to provide him time for his administration to cut a “negotiated solution” that would resolve the national security concerns.
Indeed, under the law, the president can delay the ban for a 90-day period, but only in the event that progress has been made toward a sale away from ByteDance.
On Friday, Trump posted on his social media platform that he hadn’t made a decision. Everyone must respect the decision of the Supreme Court. I must have time to review the situation before I make my decision on TikTok. Stay with us!
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She believes that the restrictions will fundamentally change the landscape with regard to what ByteDance is willing to consider and that Congress wanted the company to move forward with the divestiture process.
In discussing Trump’s TikTok views, Chew is speaking his language. After all, the incoming president is famous for keeping close tabs on his TV ratings and recently declared he had a “warm spot” for TikTok after seeing how the platform played a role in his campaign. It’s TikTok’s most public attempt to butter Trump up before he takes over the Oval Office on Monday (one day after the ban takes effect), but Chew has already visited him at Mar-a-Lago and plans to attend his inauguration, along with several other tech CEOs.
Justice Department officials issued their own confounding statements after the ruling. The Supreme Court allowed the Justice Department to take action against the Chinese Government for trying to undermine the national security of the United States. But Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said, “The next phase of this effort — implementing and ensuring compliance with the law after it goes into effect on January 19 — will be a process that plays out over time.”
According to several articles this week, Chinese officials are starting to look at the idea of selling the app and even mentioning the idea of recruiting Musk to help broker a deal. So far, we have heard nothing about a sale from the Chinese government or ByteDance, despite the reports being based on unnamed officials.
The end of the Sunday night TikTok ban? A justice Gorsuch’s opinion on the TCPA anti-demolition law
TikTok has reportedly planned to go dark on Sunday, should the law take effect, regardless of what actions other companies take. So, in the end, the only party still committed to the TikTok ban deadline might turn out to be TikTok itself.
“Without doubt, the remedy Congress and the President chose here is dramatic,” Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote in a concurring opinion. “Whether this law will succeed in achieving its ends, I do not know. One lost application may be replaced by another. As time passes and threats evolve, less dramatic and more effective solutions may emerge.”
“It is not clear that the Act itself directly regulates protected expressive activity, or conduct with an expressive component,” the opinion reads. “And it directly regulates Bytedance Ltd. and TikTok only through the divestiture requirements.”