TikTok Sues the US
TikTok, in addition to its Chinese parent company ByteDance, is suing to block the so-called “TikTok ban” signed by President Biden two weeks ago . Both companies filed the lawsuit in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on Tuesday, arguing the law is unconstitutional and violates the First Amendment.
Either way, it’s not a surprising move: TikTok CEO Shu Zi Chu previously said the company would challenge the law in court . Chu and company believe that US law is on their side and that Congressional legislation will not hold up in court. Congress, however, primarily worked with the Justice Department on the law , so lawmakers are confident it will withstand criticism.
The “TikTok ban” gives parent company ByteDance nine months to sell the app to a company not based in China. If ByteDance shows it is trying to sell or is in the process of selling, President Biden could extend the deadline by 90 days. This means ByteDance has until April 2025 at most to find someone to take the app into their hands.
For TikTok’s US arm, however, the fight has existential implications as ByteDance says it will not sell the app . If the company keeps its word, TikTok will be removed from US app stores by January, unless it wins in court.
Why does the US government want to ban TikTok?
Lawmakers in Congress have been worried about TikTok for years. There are two key problems: the app is owned by a Chinese company, which is required by law to disclose user data to the Chinese government upon request. Lawmakers see this as a potential threat to the security of American users, since the Chinese government could collect their personal data.
The other side of the coin concerns the content Americans see on the app: Lawmakers fear the Chinese government could manipulate the videos TikTok delivers to U.S. users in ways that benefit China. The government already tightly controls content shown on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok. TikTok says it does not share U.S. user data with the Chinese government and denies claims the government is involved in the content Americans see.
While the concerns are largely hypothetical, there have been cases that have proven congressional concerns to be valid: ByteDance employees were able to obtain the IP addresses of American journalists from their TikTok accounts , and in July we learned that some American user data was actually stored in China , which contradicts TikTok statements.
While Congress doesn’t have the best track record on technology, TikTok has done little to allay their concerns. In fact, when they encouraged their user base to flood Congress with messages disparaging the TikTok ban, lawmakers saw more reasons than ever to pass the bill.
A full timeline of the US government’s crackdown on TikTok can be found here .