Prof. Alan Rozenshtein Interviewed by Vox About Whether the Supreme Court Might Pause a TikTok Ban

Professor Alan Rozenshtein was interviewed by Vox about the TikTok ban poised to go into effect on January 19. Donald Trump is now speaking about preserving the app — after calling it a threat to national security in the past — and is calling for the Supreme Court to delay the implementation of a potential ban. In April 2024, Congress passed a law banning “foreign adversary controlled applications” from platforms like the Apple and Google app stores, which would effectively force TikTok’s parent company ByteDance to either sell the app or see it barred in the United States. The law received extensive bipartisan support amid national security concerns about surveillance and meddling by the Chinese government, but has been challenged on First Amendment grounds. The Supreme Court had agreed to hear a case about the ban on an expedited schedule and will weigh oral arguments on January 10. If the Supreme Court upholds the law, there are multiple ways Trump could try to save the app according to Prof. Rozenshtein. He noted that the way the policy is written gives the president significant discretion in how it’s interpreted, meaning Trump could direct his attorney general not to enforce the law or even say that ByteDance has divested of the app when it hasn’t. Read the interview here.