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Zeke Hausfather

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Up First from NPR

Palisades Fire Expands, 2024 Hottest On Record, TikTok Arguments Pro And Con

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TikTok's legal team said allowing the federal government to shut down the app would defy precedent. They called TikTok the modern public square, and they said forcing it offline would suppress the speech of 170 million Americans who use the app, as well as the company's own protected expression, meaning when TikTok curates what people see on the app,

Up First from NPR

Palisades Fire Expands, 2024 Hottest On Record, TikTok Arguments Pro And Con

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That is actually a type of speech that would be suppressed by the ban. If the Supreme Court does not block the law, TikTok's lawyer said, Scott, the app will go dark next Sunday.

Up First from NPR

Palisades Fire Expands, 2024 Hottest On Record, TikTok Arguments Pro And Con

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Yes, Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar argued that Congress passed the TikTok divestor ban law as a way of addressing the app's national security problem. As long as data flows between Beijing and TikTok, and as long as ByteDance controls TikTok's algorithm... She says Americans are just too exposed to the Chinese government. She argued that the problem isn't China's foreign ownership.

Up First from NPR

Palisades Fire Expands, 2024 Hottest On Record, TikTok Arguments Pro And Con

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The problem is the ownership is by an enemy of the United States that wants to spy on Americans and create havoc. Here's Prelogger.

Up First from NPR

Palisades Fire Expands, 2024 Hottest On Record, TikTok Arguments Pro And Con

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Yeah. In court, Prelogger said, I mean, think about it. Beijing has all of this information on millions of teenagers now. But, you know, maybe they don't want to do anything with it now, but weaponize it later when some of these teens say, you know, take jobs with the government or maybe join the military.

Up First from NPR

Palisades Fire Expands, 2024 Hottest On Record, TikTok Arguments Pro And Con

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Yeah, they had tough questions for both sides, Scott, but liberal and conservative justices were quite skeptical that TikTok's free speech would be more important than an overseas security threat. Chief Justice John Roberts said Congress had no problem with TikTokers' free speech when lawmakers passed the law banning the app back in April. Roberts said the issue is and has always been ByteDance.

Up First from NPR

Palisades Fire Expands, 2024 Hottest On Record, TikTok Arguments Pro And Con

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Well, we're waiting on two things from the court. First, whether they will delay the law's January 19th start date. And secondly, whether the law will be upheld or struck down. So the merits. Now, if the law is upheld, TikTok says its infrastructure will start to crumble. But The company is putting a lot of stock in President-elect Donald Trump.

Up First from NPR

Palisades Fire Expands, 2024 Hottest On Record, TikTok Arguments Pro And Con

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He has vowed to keep TikTok alive, and he actually will have a lot of latitude over TikTok's future. Even if the court backs the ban, he could tell his administration not to enforce it.

Up First from NPR

Palisades Fire Expands, 2024 Hottest On Record, TikTok Arguments Pro And Con

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Yeah, ByteDance has long maintained that TikTok is not for sale. And the U.S. government knows this quite well. But Solicitor General Prelogator told the justices that maybe if the law does take effect, China will change its stance, right? Maybe that will be the leverage China needs. It will just jolt them into finally saying, OK, finally, we will sell U.S. TikTok over to an American company.

Up First from NPR

Palisades Fire Expands, 2024 Hottest On Record, TikTok Arguments Pro And Con

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But we don't know yet, Scott, so we shall see. Time will tell. NPR's Bobby Allen. Thanks so much. Thanks, Scott.