The US Justice Department has asked an appeals court to reject legal challenges to a law requiring China-based ByteDance to divest TikTok’s US assets by January 19 or face a ban.
TikTok, parent company ByteDance and a group of TikTok creators have filed lawsuits seeking to block the law, which could ban the app used by 170 million Americans.
The government is filing a classified document with the court, a senior Justice Department official said Friday, that will detail additional security concerns about ByteDance’s ownership of TikTok, as well as statements from the FBI, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Justice Department’s national security division.
The department will argue that Chinese-owned TikTok poses a serious national security threat to Americans due to its access to vast amounts of citizens’ personal data, and will argue that China can covertly manipulate the information Americans consume through TikTok.
The law, signed by US President Joe Biden on April 24, gives TikTok and ByteDance until January 19 to break up or face a ban. The White House says it wants an end to Chinese ownership on national security grounds, but not a ban on TikTok.
The department rejects all arguments raised by TikTok, including that the law violates the First Amendment free speech rights of Americans who use the short-video app, and says the law is intended to address national security concerns, not speech concerns, and is targeted at China’s ability to exploit TikTok to access Americans’ sensitive personal information.
The government will tell the court that TikTok’s efforts to protect the data of American users are insufficient.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia District Court is set to hold oral arguments on the legal challenge on Sept. 16, putting TikTok’s fate in the final weeks of the 2024 presidential election.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump joined TikTok, telling an interviewer in June that he would never support a ban, despite having signed an executive order threatening to ban it in 2020 when he was president. US Vice President Kamala Harris, who is running for president, joined TikTok this week.
The law bans app stores like Apple and Google from offering TikTok and prohibits internet hosting services from supporting TikTok unless ByteDance divests from it.
The measure was overwhelmingly approved in the US Congress, driven by concerns among US lawmakers that China could access or spy on Americans’ data using the app.
With Reuters