What just happened? TikTok has once again vehemently denied the US Department of Justice’s claims of its ties to China. The latest argument was made in a federal appeals court as the video-sharing app looks to overturn a law that will likely see it banned in the US.
It was back in March when a group of lawmakers announced a bill that would force ByteDance to sell TikTok‘s US assets or be banned in the United States. President Biden signed the bill into law in April, giving ByteDance until January 19, 2025, to comply.
ByteDance has said that the law would force a shutdown of the app in the US, as the requirement to divest TikTok to avoid a nationwide ban is not commercially, legally, or technically possible. The company said this is partly because it would lead to the app operating in isolation from the rest of the world – most of TikTok’s one billion users are outside of the US.
ByteDance and TikTok took the not unexpected step of suing the US government in May over the forced sale, claiming it was a violation of free-speech rights.
The Justice Department’s lawyers argued last month that TikTok poses a national security threat by allowing the Chinese government to collect data on American citizens and manipulate what content they see on the app. The DoJ speculated that Beijing could use this sensitive data to sow disruption in the US and cast suspicion on its democratic processes.
As reported by Reuters, TikTok’s response to the accusations was that the app’s content recommendation engine and user data are stored in the US on cloud servers operated by Oracle. It added that content moderation decisions that affect US users are made in the United States.
Regarding the free-speech argument, the Justice Department claims that TikTok’s content curation decisions are “the speech of a foreigner,” and therefore not protected by the Constitution.
“By the government’s logic, a US newspaper that republishes the content of a foreign publication – Reuters, for example – would lack constitutional protection,” TikTok’s lawyers argued.
In June, TikTok said it had offered the US government a “kill switch” back in 2022 to address concerns over data protection and national security, allowing it to shut down the platform at its sole discretion if certain rules were not followed. It seems that the offer did not appease concerned officials.
Image credit: Solen Feyissa
