'Scramble' as US government 'gives room' for TikTok to remain operational despite SCOTUS ruling

17 January

The U.S. Supreme Court handed down a bombshell decision on Friday morning, January 17, upholding a TikTok ban that is scheduled to go into effect on January 19 unless ByteDance (TikTok's parent company in Mainland China) is divested from the site. The ruling was unanimous, with the High Court's six GOP appointees and its three Democratic justices agreeing that the ban is a matter of national security — not a violation of the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment.

The ban will take effect the day before President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration, and according to CNN's Evan Pérez, businesses are in a real "scramble" thanks to a ruling that came down in the days before the United States changes presidents.

In a segment hosted by CNN's Dana Bash, Pérez explained, "Look, there's been a scramble today. Yesterday, the lawyers for these companies that essentially would have to do the operative shutting down of TikTok — the companies that host their servers and, you know, the app store, for instance. So one of the things that they've been trying to figure out is whether they have a window, 24 hours, right between the time the ban goes into effect on Sunday and when Donald Trump is coming in."

Pérez continued, "The expectation is that Donald Trump will do a pause, will issue an executive order that pauses this to give time for negotiations to continue for a sale. The question, for all of these companies, is whether that 24-hour period opens them up to liability. You know, these fines are by the minute, right? And so, the question for all of them is whether they have to shut it down — or, the possibility also remains that that ByteDance and TikTok decide that they are going to shut it down completely in that time."

If the "process plays out over time," Pérez said, it could "give room for the app to continue operating."

Bash was clearly intrigued by Pérez's observation, saying, "That's really interesting."

During the segment, Bash also spoke to CNN legal analyst Paula Reid — who found her observations "interesting" as well.

Reid told Bash, "The question is: What happens next? So, this likely falls to President-elect Trump. If he can show that there are good-faith, legitimate negotiations underway to sell TikTok or otherwise divest it from ByteDance, the law allows for a pause on this ban."

Reid continued, "But I will note that the Supreme Court could have paused this and given the incoming administration a time to resolve this, but they did not. So they clearly don't think that there is any serious sale pending."

Watch the full video below or at this link.

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

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