This week, the Supreme Court may rule on the constitutionality of the Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, a bipartisan bill that will ban TikTok in the United States if the company is not sold by Jan. 19. Once in effect, TikTok — a subsidiary of Chinese-based parent company, ByteDance — will be removed from app stores, while users in the United States will no longer be able to update the app, CNN reported.
According to government professor Sonu Bedi, the Supreme Court faces a “difficult question of framing” in ruling on the case. Bedi said the Court has to “wrestle” with the question of whether TikTok qualifies as a public forum for free speech — and whether the bill restricts that forum.
Bedi explained that TikTok could be viewed as a platform where “Americans are exercising their freedom of speech.” If that is the case, by shutting down that platform, Congress is “actually directly interfering with speech,” Bedi said.
Mollie Berry ’25 said that because there are alternative social media platforms to TikTok, it is not the only space for “public discourse.”
“There are, like, so many different spaces for people to voice their opinions, I feel like that's not an actual violation of the First Amendment,” Berry said.
However, Congress has framed the ban as a matter of “national security” rather than free speech, Bedi said.
“The government, in their oral arguments to the Supreme Court, said that Congress is simply seeking to prohibit a foreign adversary,” Bedi said. “‘We don’t want [China] having this particular technology because they can use this technology in order to subvert the interests of the United States.’”
Computer science professor and cybersecurity expert Sergey Bratus wrote in an email statement to The Dartmouth that his understanding is that the Chinese government can compel a Chinese company, such as ByteDance, to do “anything” that is technologically possible.
For instance, smartphones can infer “the mood, the health and the mental health dynamics” of users with a record of in-app activities, Bratus explained.
“Apps can update themselves all the time, so whatever an app does or does not do today may change tomorrow or the next minute,” Bratus wrote.
While Berry said she is aware of data security issues with TikTok, she is personally in favor of the ban. Berry said she learned about conspiracy theories and misinformation made available on the app in her GOVT 30.04, “Political Misinformation and Conspiracy Theories.”
“I think that’s very harmful to our democratic processes, and so that’s sort of my own reason for being pro-ban,” Berry said.
Berry added that she believes that the misinformation available on American-owned applications, such as Instagram and Facebook, is “easier” for the government to remove the content.
Olivia Tak ’28 said that while she is “not looking forward to” the ban, she does believe that the government should take “extra measures to secure” user data. Tak added that she uses the app “every now and then.”
Natalie Halsey ’25 said she does not believe that user data is “secure” on any application.
“It's like, do you want the Chinese government to have your data, or do you want Mark Zuckerberg to have your data?” Halsey said.
Andrea Soto ’28, who uses the app often, said she considers the ban “an abuse of power.”
“The actual point of [the TikTok ban] is very based on just racism and U.S. supremacy because [the U.S.] want[s] to be the ones with economic power, and TikTok is producing income … that’s not based in America,” Soto alleged.
Kate Kogut ’28 agreed, adding that TikTok is ByteDance’s “most profitable” application.
“ByteDance created TikTok, [so] forcing them to sell it when it’s clearly still turning a profit and it’s still incredibly beneficial as a company is just unethical,” Kogut said.
Tak noted that some U.S.-based users operate small businesses through the app, while others use the app to “share happiness.”
“If such a booming platform [like] TikTok is removed from America, it’s going to have a very bad impact on not only [the U.S.] economy but also on the happiness and livelihood of many American citizens,” Tak said.
Halsey expressed a different opinion, calling TikTok the “bane of this generation.”
“I think that the negatives that have come along with TikTok, like reduced attention spans, addiction, especially in kids … I feel like the cons outweigh the pros,” Halsey said.
