United States of America - January 2025

An executive order issued by President Donald Trump on 20 January instructs the Attorney General not to enforce a divest-or-ban legislation regarding social media platform TikTok, for 75 days. Legislation enacted in April 2024, expressly classified TikTok as a “foreign adversary controlled application”, citing national security and data-collection and privacy. The platform petitioned for review before the Court of Appeals of the D.C. Circuit, challenging the constitutionality of the legislation on First Amendment grounds. After the D.C. Circuit denied the petition, TikTok appealed to the Supreme Court. On 17 January, the Supreme Court upheld the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, reasoning that Congress’s worries regarding national security over the platform’s data collection and relationship to China did not violate TikTok’s First Amendment rights. However, President Trump’s executive order has enabled the app to continue functioning in the United States.   

Sources: The White House, U.S. Supreme Court, CNN, New York Times