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World news: The US Supreme Court issued a landmark decision upholding a federal law that bans TikTok in the country, citing national security concerns based on its parent company being a Chinese entity named ByteDance. The high court declared legal and in sync with First Amendment protections the shutting down of the app unless its parent company divests ownership to the government.

Reaction by the CEO, Shou Chew

However, following the court decision, TikTok CEO Shou Chew took his argument to the social media outlets, where the platform has registered over 170 million American users. "We will continue fighting for the constitutional right to free speech," the chief executive argued, thanking "President Trump" for his consideration in finding answers to keep it running in America. The developer also mentioned how the app remains a platform of global expression; it has more than 60 billion views in content that carries President Trump along. Chew assured users, "We are committed to a solution, one that will be fair to the rights of free expression while upholding our duty to protect users."

Justification by supreme court

The Supreme Court decision clearly stated the position of the government on TikTok's data policies and its position in relation to China. As CBS News said, "The challenged provisions further an important government interest unrelated to the suppression of free expression and do not burden substantially more speech than necessary."

The court, while acknowledging the value of TikTok as a creative and engaging platform, nonetheless upheld Congress's determination that divestiture by ByteDance is necessary to address national security risks.

Alternative options

In the United States, thousands of TikTok users have already begun migrating to alternative platforms with fears of an impending ban. Among them was Rednote, another Chinese-owned social media platform that became the most downloaded free app on the US Apple App Store as of Monday. This decision represents a landmark point in the heated debate regarding data privacy, national security, and digital freedom and is, by extension, TikTok's fate in the United States.