The American Supreme Court unanimously validated on Friday the entry into force of a law threatening the Tiktok prohibition social network, but the future president Donald Trump asked for time to decide to apply it or not.
The decision of the highest American jurisdiction intervened just over 36 hours of the limit imposed by the congress at the parent company of Tiktok, the Chinese group bytedance, to sell its subsidiary.
“There is no doubt that, for more than 170 million Americans, Tiktok offers an important mode of expression, interaction and belonging to a community,” said the nine high magistrates.
“But the congress established that its transfer was necessary to respond to its well-founded concerns about national security,” they observed.
American elected officials had adopted, in April 2024, this law intended to prevent Chinese authorities from accessing user data in the United States of the social network or trying to manipulate American opinion.
“The dimension of Tiktok and its vulnerability to the control of a foreign opponent, combined with the wide range of data collected by the platform, justify a differentiated processing,” hammered the judges of the Supreme Court.
“Victory for security”
Several republican personalities have praised the decision, including former vice-president Mike Pence, who spoke of a “victory for protection (personal data) and the security of the American people”.
Solicited by AFP, Tiktok did not follow up immediately.
The law theoretically imposes on internet suppliers and the application stores to block downloads and updates from Sunday midnight.
The main of them, contacted by AFP, did not respond.
The United States Ministry of Justice said on Friday that the application of the law was going to spread over time, which raises the question of its very short term effects.
The White House considered that “the application of the law (should come back to the next government, which will take office on Monday,” said a declaration by the spokesperson, Karine Jean-Pierre.
“Need time”
Donald Trump repeatedly said favorable that the application was preserved in the United States, and even pleaded in this sense to the Supreme Court, asking him to stay his decision, in vain.
On Friday, he stressed that the court’s decision was to be “respected”, but said he “need time” to rule on the fate of the social network, promising a decision “in the fairly close future”.
The property developer spoke of Tiktok’s fate during a telephone conversation on Friday with the Chinese president, Xi Jinping.
A sign of the opening of Donald Trump vis-à-vis the favorite social network of young people, the boss of Tiktok, Shou Chew, is one of the guests of honor for his inauguration ceremony on Monday.
“We are going to put in place measures to prevent Tiktok from exempting the light in the United States, on Thursday, on the Fox News channel, the elected republican in the House of Representatives Mike Waltz, appointed National Security Advisor by Donald Trump.
“The law allows a postponement if a transaction remains possible,” said the elected representative of Florida. “It will give President Trump time to keep Tiktok active.”
“Great uncertainty”
For Mike Waltz, the future head of state intends to preserve the social network while adjusting the questions relating to the possible access of the Chinese authorities to the data of American users of Tiktok.
Bytedance has so far refused to give Tiktok, even if several American investors have positioned themselves, first of all, the Frank McCourt businessman, ready to put $ 20 billion on the table.
“The content creators present on Tiktok are preparing for a possible ban, in a context of great uncertainty,” explains Courtney Spritzer, patron of the social marketing agency Socialfly, specializing in social networks.
As for advertisers, “some bet on an extinction (from the platform), while others are more optimistic and think that it will continue after Sunday,” she added.
