The Supreme Court is poised to decide a landmark case on Friday that could reshape social media in America. At stake: TikTok must either break from its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, or cease U.S. operations entirely.
While the government frames this as a critical national security measure, the short-form video app and its creators and users see a direct challenge to First Amendment freedoms. This tension sits at the heart of a broader debate about digital communication and national interests.
âEverything that theyâve accused TikTok of, Facebook has done.â
On this weekâs Intercept Briefing, Alex Pearlman, aka Pearlmania500, whose videos reach nearly 3 million followers, says the issue is not the app but the way tech platforms operate. He says, âWe want regulations of algorithms. We at least need to know what the rules are.â And when it comes to the governmentâs crackdown on TikTok, he says, âEverything that theyâve accused TikTok of, Facebook has done, either domestically or internationally. Everything that they have screamed could happen with TikTok, when it came to the elections, Elon Musk did openly. And most people know that. Most people see that. And I think itâs going to lend to further cynicism when it comes to our institutions and when it comes to how government can actually operate.âÂ
Intercept senior counsel and correspondent Shawn Musgrave adds, âTech competitors to TikTok have generally avoided saying very much about the ban. ⊠But these companies obviously stand to benefit incredibly from knocking out their top competitor in the short-video space. It is not really a consideration before the court in the case itself, but I do think itâs important to look at some of the background issues. That itâs not just about national security and First Amendment. There are also really considerable economic interests here too.â
âThese companies obviously stand to benefit incredibly from knocking out their top competitor in the short-video space.â
Intercept politics reporter Jessica Washington says TikTok isnât just another social network â itâs fostering political conversations that wouldnât exist anywhere else. âWeâve seen Twitter, which is now X, move really far to the right. I think anyone whoâs been on there in recent times can attest to that. We know YouTube also has a pretty right-leaning audience as well and an algorithm. And Facebook and Instagram are very different platforms than TikTok. So I think we lose a lot of those conversations that are happening, important political conversations in different regions, different areas of the world. Important conversations that young people are having with each other.â
To hear more of this conversation and understand whatâs at stake, check out this weekâs episode of The Intercept Briefing.
WAIT! BEFORE YOU GO on about your day, ask yourself: How likely is it that the story you just read would have been produced by a different news outlet if The Intercept hadnât done it?
Consider what the world of media would look like without The Intercept. Who would hold party elites accountable to the values they proclaim to have? How many covert wars, miscarriages of justice, and dystopian technologies would remain hidden if our reporters werenât on the beat?
The kind of reporting we do is essential to democracy, but it is not easy, cheap, or profitable. The Intercept is an independent nonprofit news outlet. We donât have ads, so we depend on our members to help us hold the powerful to account. Joining is simple and doesnât need to cost a lot: You can become a sustaining member for as little as $3 or $5 a month. Thatâs all it takes to support the journalism you rely on.