Supreme Court Hears TikTok Case, Syrians Return Home, French Rape Trial Verdicts
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TikTok's American future is now up to the Supreme Court. The Chinese-owned company wants the high court to stop a ban of the app from taking effect next month. What does this mean for the tens of millions of TikTok users?
I'm Steve Inskeep with Michelle Martin, and this is Up First from NPR News.
7,000 Syrian refugees have been living in a makeshift camp on the Jordanian border for the past nine years. Now, after the fall of the Assad regime, most of them want to go home, but what will wait for them there? And Pierce, Jane Araf is one of the first journalists to have visited the campsite.
Also, judges delivered verdicts in a French rape case that shocked many people around the world. The victim has become a feminist hero, but will the trial make a difference for others? Stay with us. We've got the news you need to start your day.
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TikTok and the Department of Justice are heading to the Supreme Court. The court accepted TikTok's request to hear arguments about a law that could ban the viral video app next month. The court's chosen timing matters here as much as the decision to hear the case. The justices often move deliberately and take many months, but they chose in this case to move quickly, scheduling an argument for TikTok within three weeks on January 10th.
And parents Bobby Allen is with us to talk about what this could mean. Good morning, Bobby.
Good morning.
So why is the Supreme Court stepping in?
Well, in short, because TikTok requested an emergency review. And this is TikTok's last legal shot, right? The company has been fighting a law that is set to take effect on January 19th that bans the app nationwide unless it splits off from its Chinese parent company ByteDance. It recently lost a lower court appeal, and now the Supreme Court has scheduled expedited oral arguments, and the hearing is happening in three weeks. What are the main issues the court is being asked to resolve? Yeah, the case is about the balance between free speech and the possible threat of a foreign adversary. TikTok has long said that the Chinese government doesn't collect data on Americans and does not use the app to push propaganda. But U.S. officials say the risk of that happening is just too high and that the app has to be put out of business unless it sheds its China-based owner. Legal scholars say because of the First Amendment, government restrictions on speech are very hard to uphold in court.
Usually the government can only suppress speech if it's really narrowly tailored to deal with a really specific problem. And a lower court ruled that the Chinese issue is actually enough to justify the ban. But now the Supreme Court is reviewing it and they could just come down differently.
So it's TikTok's argument that this ban violates Americans' free speech rights?
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