Although TikTok faces a potential ban in the United States, that prospect hasn't stopped an increasing number of people in the US from turning to the platform for news.
About four in 10 young adults in the US now regularly look to TikTok for news, according to analysis published on Tuesday by the Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan think tank based in Washington, DC.
In four years, the share of adults who say they regularly get news from the short-form video-sharing platform has grown about fivefold, from 3 percent in 2020 to 17 percent this year, Pew found.
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Since 2020, "no social media platform we've studied has seen faster growth in the share of Americans who regularly turn to it for news", Pew said in a news release.
TikTok is popular among teenagers, with 63 percent of those surveyed saying they use the platform, and young adults.
Earlier this year, Congress overwhelmingly passed legislation, signed into law in April by US President Joe Biden, to force a TikTok sale or ownership divestiture by January. TikTok is owned by Chinese company ByteDance, which is based in Beijing.
US politicians have alleged that TikTok shares user data with the Chinese government. TikTok has repeatedly denied the accusation and has maintained that it stores user data on servers based in the US.
Today, 39 percent of adults under age 30 say they regularly get news on TikTok, compared with the share of adults ages 30 to 49 (19 percent), 50 to 64 (9 percent) and 65 and older (3 percent), according to a survey of more than 10,650 adults in the US conducted between July 15 and Aug 4.
Around half of TikTok users (52 percent) now say they regularly get news there, up from 43 percent last year and 22 percent in 2020.
Pew also published the results of another survey earlier this month that indicated declining support for a TikTok ban in the US.
The share of Americans who support the US government banning TikTok stood at 32 percent in that survey, down from 38 percent in the fall of 2023 and 50 percent in March 2023.
Meanwhile, 28 percent of US respondents said they oppose a ban, up from 22 percent in March 2023. The portion who said they were uncertain about whether the government should ban TikTok also has risen, from 28 percent in March 2023 to 39 percent now.
On Monday, a lawyer for TikTok and ByteDance sought to persuade a federal appeals court to block the law, which would ban the app used by 170 million in the US as soon as Jan 19. The lawyer argued that the ban would violate the right to free speech.
A three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia heard two hours of arguments in the lawsuit, which was filed by TikTok and ByteDance in May and sought an injunction, Reuters reported.
US Justice Department lawyer Daniel Tenny contended that TikTok poses a "national security threat" because of its access to personal data.
Andrew Pincus, the lawyer for TikTok and ByteDance, told the judges that the US government had not demonstrated that TikTok poses a national security risk. Pincus also argued that the law violates the US Constitution on numerous grounds, including running afoul of First Amendment protection of free speech.
TikTok and ByteDance argued that if the law is upheld, it would show that Congress can circumvent the First Amendment "by invoking national security and ordering the publisher of any individual newspaper or website to sell to avoid being shut down".
The law also prohibits app stores like Apple and Google from offering TikTok and bars internet hosting services from supporting it unless ByteDance divests TikTok by the deadline. The president could extend the deadline by three months if he certifies that Byte-Dance is making significant progress toward a sale.
Ruling sought
TikTok and the Justice Department have asked for a ruling by Dec 6, which would allow the US Supreme Court to consider any appeal before a ban could take effect.
During negotiations with the Biden administration more than two years ago, TikTok presented the government with a 90-page draft agreement that would allow a third party to monitor the platform's algorithm, content moderation practices and other programming, The Associated Press reported. However, the company said a deal was not reached because government officials essentially walked away from negotiations in August 2022.
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The case is playing out less than two months before the Nov 5 US presidential election.
Republican nominee Donald Trump and Vice-President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, are both active on TikTok.
