TikTok filed a widely anticipated lawsuit Tuesday seeking a court order to prevent the U.S. from enforcing a ban on the social app after President Biden signed the bill last month. Due to the potential ban, the platform's parent company, China-based ByteDance, will exit TikTok and become a U.S.-based company by January 19, 2025, in order to continue its operations in the United States. ByteDance has already said it would be better to close TikTok than sell it.
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., alleges that the U.S. government not only violates TikTok's First Amendment rights, but also “uses the platform to communicate in ways that cannot be replicated elsewhere.” It is silencing the 170 million Americans who rely on it.” ” The Department of Justice declined to comment to Yahoo News for this article.
🚫 Why does the US want to ban TikTok?
Because TikTok is an app owned by a Chinese company, there were concerns that the Chinese government could access user data through it, which is why the House of Representatives passed a stand-alone ban bill in March. At the time, it was unclear whether the Senate agreed that TikTok was a national security threat, so the ban was added to a series of bills that would send aid to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan.
TikTok has denied all allegations and said it has taken steps to protect user data and thwart Chinese government interference, including hosting data on the U.S.-owned server Oracle.
📜 How does TikTok argue that this ban violates the First Amendment?
According to the complaint, TikTok claims the ban violates “both free speech and personal liberties.”
“For the first time in history, Congress has imposed a permanent, nationwide ban on a single designated speech platform, allowing all Americans to participate in a unique online community of more than 1 billion people worldwide. and enacted a law prohibiting it,” the lawsuit states. Say.
TikTok also claims the government has not provided sufficient evidence to prove the app is a threat to national security. Instead, TikTok called it “speculation at best.”
👀 What would a TikTok ban look like?
When the ban goes into effect in 2025, it will be illegal for app stores and web hosting companies to distribute or update the TikTok app on U.S. users' phones.
TikTok argues that a sale is not possible from a technical standpoint, and that “millions of lines of software code painstakingly developed by thousands of engineers” would “need to be transferred to a large replacement team of engineers.” claims. This team does not exist and would not be able to understand the complex code required to run the platform. ”
📱 TikTok is already banned on government devices. How is this different?
TikTok is banned from federal government cellphones and state government devices due to similar security concerns.
The difference is that these bans are enacted by governments or employers, who have the power to ban certain apps from devices and networks they own and operate.
In May 2023, Montana Governor Greg Gianforte attempted to ban TikTok statewide. TikTok filed a lawsuit, and a federal judge agreed, ruling that the ban violated the First Amendment.
🏛️ What's next?
TikTok's lawsuit asks a federal appeals court to declare the ban in violation of the U.S. Constitution and order the attorney general not to enforce it.
Bloomberg analysts predict that for the United States, the case could mean government officials will have to publicly release sensitive information to prove why a ban on TikTok is justified. ing.
“TikTok is the underdog here,” said Matthew Schettenhelm, a litigation analyst at Bloomberg. “It's really hard to overturn Congress' decisions on national security matters.”
