Tiktok and its Chinese parent company ByteDance are suing the US Government to block a law that would ban the platform in the US nationwide.
The US Senate passed a bill in April to ban apps ‘directly or indirectly’ operated by Tiktok or ByteDance. The bill gives ByteDance until January 19, 2025 to sell Tiktok to a company outside of China, or otherwise be shut down in the US. In response, Tiktok and ByteDance have recently launched legal action in a Federal Appeals Court. The platform alleges that the law is unconstitutional because it is inconsistent with the First Amendment, in that it violates Americans’ free speech and prevents them from accessing lawful information.
In their petition, Tiktok accused the US Government of unconstitutionally exercising their congressional power to ‘expressly’ single them out, barring Americans from a ‘unique online community with more than 1 billion people.’
The legal challenge follows security concerns that the US Government has consistently aired about the sharing of American user data between ByteDance and the Chinese Government. This led to fears that China could use TikTok’s US-based data to identify intelligence targets, or engage in several forms of covert influence. However, there has been no concrete evidence that the Chinese government is able to access TikTok’s data. In fact, TikTok has said it has never shared user data with the Chinese Government, and that it protects such information by hosting data on servers owned by US based software company Oracle.
The ensuing legal battle will determine whether security concerns can trump America’s First Amendment rights. Around 170 million Americans - almost half of the country’s population - use the app, despite the ever-growing anxieties surrounding its security issues. TikTok’s arguments seem to be consistent with prior US legal decisions. For instance, the US Supreme Court previously held that the US Government cannot prohibit Americans from receiving foreign propaganda if they choose to do so. Additionally, the Berman Amendment is a piece of legislation that forbids US Presidents from blocking the free flow of foreign media in the country.
TikTok and ByteDance have described the bill as ‘speculative and analytically flawed’, and said that selling the platform’s US-based operations are infeasible ‘commercially’, ‘technologically’, and ‘legally.’ Despite TikTok’s immense influence in the social media landscape, the bill garnered bi-partisan support in the US Senate, indicating the seriousness of the US Government’s national security concerns, and the wider intensification of Sino-American tensions.
A defeat for TikTok in this upcoming case would mean the legislation forcing its sale or ban will be upheld. While US policymakers classified the new legislation as a ‘forced divestiture’ of TikTok rather than an outright ban, TikTok insisted that a ban would be the only probable outcome if they lose the case. The case is expected to escalate to the Supreme Court in the subsequent months.
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