Supreme Court justices posed tough questions to the lawyer representing TikTok and its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, on Friday over a law that would force a sale or ban the widely used short-video app in the United States by Jan. 19. The case pits free speech rights against national security concerns.
TikTok, barring Supreme Court intervention, is facing a federal ban of the popular platform in the U.S. on Sunday, just one day before Donald Trump is inaugurated to serve another term as president.
Trump’s nominee for national security adviser said in an interview late Wednesday that the president-elect was exploring options to “preserve” TikTok, which has an estimated 170 million American users.
Meanwhile, unconfirmed reports suggested TikTok CEO Chew Shou Zi could be attending Trump’s inauguration.
Trump acting as a TikTok saviour and Chew attending the inauguration are both scenarios that appeared unthinkable not long ago, as explained in …