Source: AFP
TikTok and its Chinese parent ByteDance filed a legal challenge against the United States on Tuesday, targeting a law that would force the app to be sold or face a US ban.
This comes about two weeks after President Joe Biden signed a bill giving TikTok 270 days to find a non-Chinese buyer or face a ban in the country.
The video-sharing platform argues that this was unconstitutional.
“For the first time in history, Congress has enacted a law that subjects a single, named speech platform to a permanent, nationwide ban and prohibits every American from participating in a unique online community of more than a billion people worldwide,” TikTok’s suit said. and ByteDance.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Washington, argued that the move violates the First Amendment, charging that “Congress has enacted a law that limits vast amounts of protected speech.”
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He also said the divestiture required for TikTok to continue operating in the United States is “simply not possible” — and not on the timeline required.
The White House can extend the 270-day deadline once, by 90 days. During this time, the app will continue to work for its roughly 170 million US users.
“Shutdown TikTok”
ByteDance has said it has no plans to sell TikTok, leaving the lawsuit, which will likely go to the US Supreme Court, as its only option to avoid the ban.
“There is no question: the law will force the shutdown of TikTok by January 19, 2025,” the lawsuit said, “silencing (those) who use the platform to communicate in ways that cannot be replicated elsewhere.”
TikTok was first targeted by former President Donald Trump’s administration, which tried unsuccessfully to ban it.
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That effort bogged down in the courts when a federal judge temporarily blocked Trump’s effort, saying his reasons for banning the app were likely overstated and that free speech rights were at risk.
The new effort signed by Biden is designed to overcome the same legal headaches, and some experts believe the US Supreme Court could be open to allowing national security concerns to trump free speech protections.
“TikTok has prevailed in previous First Amendment challenges, but the bipartisan nature of this federal law may make judges more likely to defer” to Congress and national security arguments, said Gautam Hans, a law professor at Cornell University. .
“Without a public debate about exactly what the risks are, however, it is difficult to determine why the courts should uphold such an unprecedented law,” Hance added.
The United States has strict restrictions on foreign ownership of broadcast media, but authorities have so far left Internet platforms largely untouched.
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TikTok had taken a number of steps to allay concerns that US users’ data was unprotected, but the lawsuit said those efforts were ignored by the government.
There are serious doubts that any buyer could emerge to buy TikTok even if ByteDance agreed to the request.
The usual big-tech suspects like YouTube’s Meta or Google would likely be blocked from buying TikTok due to antitrust concerns, and others wouldn’t be able to afford one of the world’s most successful apps for a key demographic.
There are also doubts that the company would ever give up the secrets of its algorithm that saw TikTok become a cultural juggernaut, competing with YouTube and Instagram for young people’s attention.
Source: AFP