Next week, a court will hear arguments about whether the US government can ban TikTok, based on evidence it doesn’t want anyone — including the social media company — to see, The Verge reported.
On September 16th, the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia will hear oral arguments for TikTok v. Garland, TikTok’s First Amendment challenges to legislation that it claims amounts to a ban. It’s a fight not just about free speech but whether the Department of Justice can make a case using classified material that its opponent can’t review or argue against. The government argues TikTok is a clear national security threat, but says that revealing why would be a threat, too.
According to The Verge, TikTok’s suit stems from a law signed by President Joe Biden back in April. The law requires TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, to divest it within nine months to a non-Chinese company; if it fails, the app would be effectively banned in the US – unless the president grants it a few months to get a deal done.
TikTok has argued the law would unconstitutionally “force a shutdown,” accusing the government of taking “the unprecedented step of expressly angling out and banning TikTok.
The Hill reported bipartisan efforts to ban TikTok nationwide will be scrutinized Monday by a federal appeals court tasked with weighing whether axing the social media giant’s U.S. presence runs afoul of the First Amendment.
The social media platform and a group of content creators have sued over a new law that could ban the app, placing free speech concerns front and center but also raising a handful of other issues.
On Monday morning, the three-judge federal appeals court panel in the nation’s capital will hear their challenges and decide whether to block the law from going into effect as scheduled on Jan. 19.
President Biden signed the legislation in April after quickly passed Congress with bipartisan support, kicking into place the timeline for TikTok’s China-based parent company, ByteDance, to sell the platform or face a ban from U.S. app stores and networks.
ByteDance has contends divestment is practically impossible, meaning that the law effectively amounts to a nationwide ban of the video-sharing platform.
Voice of America reported attorney’s representing the social media application TikTok and it’s China-based parent company ByteDance, are poised to clash with lawyers from the Department of Justice on Monday in a case that could decide the fate of the service in the United States.
The case, which will be heard at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, consolidate several lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of a law enacted earlier this year. The measure, which had broad bipartisan support in Congress, demands that ByteDance sell TikTok to a non-Chinese owner before January 19, 2025, or be forced to shut down its service within the U.S.
The law’s challengers claim that it represents an unconstitutional suppression of free speech, violating the First Amendment rights of TikTok’s estimated 170 million U.S. users.
In my opinion, the situation with TikTok (and ByteDance) just keeps going around and around. Ideally, TikTok and ByteDance might have to face consequences for collecting data from American citizens.