TikTok users want SCOTUS to think it’s more about dance videos than Chinese international intrigue

CNN — TikTok, the popular social media platform celebrated for its frothy mix of dance videos, cat antics, news clips and recipes, will wage a substantial First Amendment battle at the Supreme Court on Friday. “Most of it consists of things like dance videos, home-repair tutorials, and montages of weekend getaways.” More importantly as a matter of First Amendment protection, Fisher wrote in a separate filing with the court last week, “it makes no difference that the government’s fear is that a ‘foreign adversary’ might be involved in pushing the objectionable speech to Americans.” Reagan, Obama and Trump judges sided against TikTok The unanimous Washington, DC-based US appellate court was persuaded, however, by the Biden administration’s arguments that Congress had sufficient national security concerns that China would control TikTok through its parent company, ByteDance, which is incorporated in the Cayman Islands but headquartered in Beijing. No one disputes that the PRC pursues those goals through ostensibly private companies subject to its control and by pre-positioning assets in the United States to deploy at opportune moments.” “And in light of those realities,” insists Prelogar, who will represent the Biden administration Friday, “no one can seriously dispute that the PRC’s control of TikTok through ByteDance represents a grave threat to national security.” Bipartisan US concern over Chinese influence The ban, passed by Congress and signed by Biden in April, arose from years of bipartisan concern over the dangers of Beijing’s influence on Americans. ‘Given the sensitive interests in national security and foreign affairs at stake,’ the Government’s judgment based upon this evidence ‘is entitled to significant weight.’” Srinivasan similarly relied on the rationale: “It is a modus operandi of the PRC to surreptitiously access data through its control over companies like ByteDance. … Even if the PRC has yet to discernibly act on its potential control over ByteDance’s access to data on American users in particular, Congress did not need to wait for the risk to become realized and the damage to be done before taking action to avert it.” In TikTok’s appeal, Francisco argues that the government has overstated China’s interest in TikTok’s data and understated TikTok’s ability to protect itself against interference from China.