DENVER — On Friday, the United States Supreme Court will hear arguments just nine days before TikTok is set to be banned in the United States. Federal leaders allege the app collects data from Americans and pushes out propaganda or disinformation, but TikTok's parent company said banning the app silences free speech.
The United States told TikTok, through legislation that became law, the company must either sell the app or discontinue operating on Jan. 19th. Amid the Supreme Court hearing on Friday, the state of Colorado is still pursuing an investigation against the app's parent company ByteDance.
Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser's investigation involves, in part, allegations that the application is harming young people. Weiser, who is also now running for Colorado governor, told Denver7 that the state is three years into an investigation over claims the app is harming young people's mental health.
By now ,we have seen the research that confirms how TikTok impacts young people's mental health, ability to get sleep at night, mood and work ethic. The goal, of not only Weiser but also other attorneys general, is to stop TikTok from using features that can make kids addicted, end filters that create unreal appearances for users and impose fines for the application's alleged illegal practices. One of the central arguments of Colorado deals with TikTok's algorithm. Denver7 spoke with a computer sciences professor who gave us more insight on TikTok's perspective when it comes to the algorithm.
"For example, you know, Tiktok and Facebook, these sorts of places are not responsible directly for moderating the content. Now it is the case that many of them do moderate their content and they're more than welcome to do that out of the section 230 but you know the I think this is going to be part of the argument is going to be made," MSU Denver professor of computer sciences Steve Beaty said.
The owner of TikTok is fighting back in court alleging the United States is violating American's freedom of speech by trying to shut down the app.
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