TikTok fights its ban in court as the scroll economy braces for an FYP-less future

Put a finger down… if you’re embroiled in a court case over your existence. TikTok headed to federal court yesterday to appeal its looming US ban (signed into law in April). If ByteDance doesn’t sell its controlling stake in TikTok by mid-January, the app will be blocked from US devices. The case — expected to reach the Supreme Court — is the biggest existential threat yet to the app, which has 170M+ users in the States.

• Duet: TikTok has argued that the ban is unconstitutional, while the US gov’t insists that TikTok’s Chinese ownership is a national-security risk (though much of the evidence is classified).

• Comments: TikTok says a January sale isn’t possible given that China’s refused to export the app’s algorithm. TikTok’s spent $2B placing American data on Oracle’s US servers, but the Biden admin said it’s not enough to prevent China from directing TikTok’s US business.

• Shifted: Americans’ support for the ban fell from 50% in March 2023 to 32% last month, while the share of those who oppose the ban has jumped from 22% to 28%.

FYPrecendent… This is the furthest a US Tik-ban effort has gotten, but it’s far from the first push. Montana banned the app last year, but a federal judge overturned that on First Amendment grounds. The same fate hit then-President Trump’s attempt to block TikTok through an executive order in 2020. Still, the US banned the For You Page from gov’t-issued devices last year. India scrapped TikTok in 2020, leading the app’s 200M users in the country to switch to rivals like Meta’s Reels and YouTube’s Shorts.