Chinese tech giant ByteDance’s social media platform TikTok made an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court yesterday, to halt the ban on use of the app in the U.S., effective January 19, 2025. Meanwhile, American social media companies Meta Platforms (META) and Alphabet (GOOGL) are relishing that the ban will boost the usage of their platforms.
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TikTok’s short video forms have been a direct threat to Meta’s Family of Apps (FoA), including Instagram and Facebook. Moreover, Google’s YouTube has been suffering due to the growing popularity of TikTok videos in the U.S., boasting over 170 million American users.
Here’s How TikTok is Holding up Its Case
TikTok has asked the Supreme Court to put an injunction on the law by January 6 or at least temporarily halt the ban so the company could make its case in all fairness. TikTok claims that the ban violates its First Amendment right to free speech. The company believes that lifting the ban or a temporary halt could give more time to the incoming Trump administration to study the case and give a final verdict. In the emergency injunction filing, TikTok claims that the ban could potentially mean small American businesses could lose nearly $1 billion in sales and creators lose $300 million in earnings.
Interestingly, TikTok CEO Shou Chew had a rendezvous with President-elect Donald Trump yesterday, at his Mar-a-Lago estate. It’s quite possible that one of the important discussions at the meeting could be concerning TikTok’s ban.
In April, a Federal court passed a law imposing a ban on TikTok in the U.S., which was upheld by an Appeals court earlier this month. The law requires ByteDance to sell TikTok or completely bans the U.S. app stores from offering access to TikTok. The Federal government has said that TikTok’s ban is vital to protect national security. TikTok’s Chinese ownership puts the data security of millions of American users at risk. The Chinese government could sometimes force Chinese companies to share their data, putting U.S. national security under threat.
Lawmakers Ask Google and Apple to Remove TikTok
On Friday, December 13, Democratic lawmakers told Apple and Alphabet CEOs to be ready to remove TikTok from their App store offerings on January 19, unless ByteDance divests the app. House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Chair John Moolenaar and Ranking Member Krishnamoorthi sent letters to CEOs Tim Cook and Sundar Pichai detailing the removal. At the same time, they beseeched TikTok CEO Chew to divest the social media platform before the January 19 deadline.
TikTok’s removal will be a good sign for American social media companies, including Meta, Google, and Snapchat (SNAP). Let’s see how these companies fare on TipRanks’ Stock Comparison tool.
