TikTok Challenges US Law Mandating Sale of US Assets, Cites Free Speech Concerns

TikTok has taken legal action to challenge a US law that mandates its parent company, China-based ByteDance, to sell its US assets by January 19, 2024, or face a nationwide ban. The law, signed by President Joe Biden on April 24, 2023, comes in response to national security concerns, with the US Department of Justice arguing that TikTok poses a risk by potentially allowing the Chinese government to access the data of American users and influence the content they see.

In its appeal to the federal court, TikTok contends that the Department of Justice has made several factual errors in its assessment of the app’s ties to China. The company emphasized that its content recommendation algorithms and user data for US users are stored on Oracle-operated cloud servers within the United States. Additionally, TikTok asserts that all content moderation decisions affecting US users are made domestically, countering claims that the app’s operations are under the influence of the Chinese government.

The law also prohibits app stores like Apple and Google’s from offering TikTok and bars internet hosting services from supporting the app unless ByteDance divests its US operations. The legal battle is now set to be a significant point of contention in the upcoming US presidential election, with oral arguments scheduled for September 16, just weeks before the November 5 election.

Both political figures in the US have taken varying stances on the issue. Former President Donald Trump, now a Republican presidential candidate, has expressed opposition to a TikTok ban. Meanwhile, Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential candidate, has embraced TikTok as part of her campaign strategy.

TikTok’s legal team argues that the forced sale infringes on the company’s free speech rights, stating that the app’s content curation decisions are protected under the US 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 argued in court.