TikTok ban might not have large impact on staffing
TikTok ban might not have large impact on staffing

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A law that threatens to shut down social media platform TikTok in the US was upheld by the Supreme Court, Bloomberg reported. However, the impact on the staffing industry could be minimal.
The high court said unanimously today that Congress acted constitutionally when it required ByteDance Ltd. to sell the video-sharing app by Jan. 19 or face a ban.
“Congress has determined that divestiture is necessary to address its well-supported national security concerns regarding TikTok’s data collection practices and relationship with a foreign adversary,” the court said in an unsigned opinion.
The decision opens an uncertain chapter for TikTok and its 170 million US users.
TikTok experimented with video résumés but appears to have discontinued the product, according to the Online Job Advertising Market: 2024 Update report by SIA. As a result, a shutdown of TikTok might not have a large impact on industry, according to analysts. Still, some staffing firms do post on TikTok as part of marketing efforts.
Meanwhile, President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to save TikTok and could choose to suspend enforcement of the new law once he takes office on Monday, Bloomberg reported.
Trump’s incoming national security adviser, Michael Waltz, said Thursday on Fox News that the administration will “put measures in place to keep TikTok from going dark.” But TikTok may be preparing to shut down the platform on Sunday, according to reports this week in The Information and Reuters.
ByteDance has insisted it won’t consider a sale, though the imminence of the ban could prompt the company to reconsider, according to Bloomberg. Chinese officials are evaluating a potential option that involves Elon Musk acquiring the US operations of TikTok, Bloomberg News has reported.
Any sale would require approval from Trump, who would have to determine whether the deal would remove the app from Chinese control, Bloomberg reported. The law also says the president can put the ban on hold if he certifies to Congress that ByteDance has agreed to a qualifying sale. Trump once supported a ban but now says he opposes one.
At the Supreme Court, the Biden administration defended the law as a national security imperative, saying that continuing Chinese control of TikTok will let a foreign adversary spread propaganda, covertly manipulate the platform and collect Americans’ data for espionage or blackmail purposes.
The companies contended that foreign influence concerns are unfounded, arguing that TikTok Inc. is an American company incorporated and headquartered in California.
President Joe Biden signed the measure into law in April after it won approval from a bipartisan majority in Congress.
The Supreme Court put the case on a fast track after TikTok and the content creators asked for the ban to be put on hold temporarily. The justices instead scheduled a special session that gave them time to issue a definitive ruling on the law’s constitutionality before Jan. 19.
The cases are TikTok v. Garland, 24-656, and Firebaugh v. Garland, 24-657.