The US supreme court’s TikTok case will put free expression on the line | Trevor Timm

The US supreme court surprisingly decided this week to hear TikTok ’s appeal to its imminent ban in the United States .

It may be the most important case at the intersection of the first amendment and national security in decades .

The US 's core argument is that ByteDance might be handing over user data to the Chinese government.

Trevor Timm : It's possible the supreme court could essentially re-affirm its past precedents upholding the first amendment, but also could move to weaken or overturn them.

He says the government's response in this case has essentially been: Let’s be more like China . There is an alternative that would diminish the influence of propagandists without abandoning our values, Timm says.