TikTok's head-turning saga has had so many twists and turns in recent days, it’s whiplash-inducing.

On Jan. 17, the U.S. Supreme Court Justices unanimously upheld the law to ban or force a sale of the app, which went into effect on Jan. 19. The next day, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew was seated in a prestigious position on the dais at President Trump’s inauguration. That same day, Trump signed an executive order instructing the Justice Department to delay enforcement for at least 75 days.

Lawmakers, including those on Trump’s side of the aisle, have already pushed back. The chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), stated “there's no legal basis for any kind of extension.”

The Supreme Court made the right decision, resting on legal precedent. Banning TikTok or forcing its divestiture from Chinese control is a gift to America. It’s best that this happens as soon as possible.

Our nations are not on equal footing. China maintains a digital iron curtain (the “Great Firewall”). The country blocks every major U.S. tech platform, including Meta, Google and X, while freely pushing its influence into American homes. This one-sided arrangement gives Beijing unprecedented reach into U.S. society while denying American companies access to Chinese markets.

America has legal and historical precedent to take action. When dating app Grindr's Chinese ownership raised security concerns, regulators forced its sale. This aligns with longstanding U.S. law restricting broadcast media from adversarial foreign control that “may pose a national security risk.” It makes sense that the same principles that keep our TVs and radios free from Chinese or Russian influence apply to the digital platforms that today serve as our main sources of media.

And TikTok’s data sharing and surveillance practices are uniquely troubling. In 2022, ByteDance staff based in both the U.S. and China were caught spying on American reporters who were covering the company, using data from the journalists’ TikTok........

© The Hill