TikTok and Chinese parent ByteDance on Thursday urged a US court to strike down a law they are saying will ban the favored short app on Jan. 19, saying the US government refused to have interaction in any serious settlement talks after 2022.
Laws signed in April by President Biden gives ByteDance until Jan. 19 of next 12 months to divest TikTok’s US assets or face a ban on the app utilized by 170 million Americans.
ByteDance says a divestiture is “impossible technologically, commercially, or legally.”
The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia will hold oral arguments on lawsuits filed by TikTok and ByteDance together with TikTok users on Sept. 16.
TikTok’s future within the US may rest on the end result of the case which could impact how the federal government uses its latest authority to clamp down on foreign-owned apps.
“This law is a radical departure from this country’s tradition of championing an open Web, and sets a dangerous precedent allowing the political branches to focus on a disfavored speech platform and force it to sell or be shut down,” ByteDance and TikTok argue in asking the court to strike down the law.
Driven by worries amongst US lawmakers that China could access data on Americans or spy on them with the app, the measure was passed overwhelmingly in Congress just weeks after being introduced.
Lawyers for a bunch of TikTok users who’ve sued to forestall the app from being banned said the law would violate their free speech rights. In a filing on Thursday, they argued it is obvious there are not any imminent national security risks since the law “allows TikTok to proceed operating through the remainder of this 12 months — including during an election that the very president who signed the bill says is existential for our democracy.”
TikTok says any divestiture or separation – even when technically possible – would take years and it argues that the law runs afoul of Americans’ free speech rights.
Further, it says the law unfairly singles out TikTok for punitive treatment and “ignores many applications with substantial operations in China that collect large amounts of US user data, in addition to the various US firms that develop software and employ engineers in China.”
ByteDance recounted lengthy negotiations between the corporate and the US government that it says abruptly led to August 2022.
The corporate also made public a redacted version of a 100-plus page draft national security agreement to guard US TikTok user data and says it has spent greater than $2 billion on the hassle.
The draft agreement included giving the US government a “kill switch” to suspend TikTok in the US at the federal government’s sole discretion if the corporate didn’t comply with the agreement and says the US demanded that TikTok’s source code be moved out of China.
“This administration has determined that it prefers to attempt to shut down TikTok in the US and eliminate a platform of speech for 170 million Americans, reasonably than proceed to work on a practical, feasible, and effective solution to guard US users through an enforceable agreement with the US government,” TikTok lawyers wrote the Justice Department in an April 1 email made public on Thursday.
The Justice Department declined to comment on the e-mail but said last month the law “addresses critical national security concerns in a way that’s consistent with the First Amendment and other constitutional limitations.” It said it might defend the laws in court.
In 2020, then-President Donald Trump was blocked by the courts in his bid to ban TikTok and Chinese-owned WeChat, a unit of Tencent in the US.
The White House says it desires to see Chinese-based ownership ended on national security grounds, but not a ban on TikTok.
Earlier this month, Trump joined TikTok and has recently raised concerns a couple of potential ban.
The law prohibits app stores like those of Apple and Alphabet’s Google from offering TikTok.
It also bars web hosting services from supporting TikTok unless it’s divested by ByteDance.
TikTok and Chinese parent ByteDance on Thursday urged a US court to strike down a law they are saying will ban the favored short app on Jan. 19, saying the US government refused to have interaction in any serious settlement talks after 2022.
Laws signed in April by President Biden gives ByteDance until Jan. 19 of next 12 months to divest TikTok’s US assets or face a ban on the app utilized by 170 million Americans.
ByteDance says a divestiture is “impossible technologically, commercially, or legally.”
The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia will hold oral arguments on lawsuits filed by TikTok and ByteDance together with TikTok users on Sept. 16.
TikTok’s future within the US may rest on the end result of the case which could impact how the federal government uses its latest authority to clamp down on foreign-owned apps.
“This law is a radical departure from this country’s tradition of championing an open Web, and sets a dangerous precedent allowing the political branches to focus on a disfavored speech platform and force it to sell or be shut down,” ByteDance and TikTok argue in asking the court to strike down the law.
Driven by worries amongst US lawmakers that China could access data on Americans or spy on them with the app, the measure was passed overwhelmingly in Congress just weeks after being introduced.
Lawyers for a bunch of TikTok users who’ve sued to forestall the app from being banned said the law would violate their free speech rights. In a filing on Thursday, they argued it is obvious there are not any imminent national security risks since the law “allows TikTok to proceed operating through the remainder of this 12 months — including during an election that the very president who signed the bill says is existential for our democracy.”
TikTok says any divestiture or separation – even when technically possible – would take years and it argues that the law runs afoul of Americans’ free speech rights.
Further, it says the law unfairly singles out TikTok for punitive treatment and “ignores many applications with substantial operations in China that collect large amounts of US user data, in addition to the various US firms that develop software and employ engineers in China.”
ByteDance recounted lengthy negotiations between the corporate and the US government that it says abruptly led to August 2022.
The corporate also made public a redacted version of a 100-plus page draft national security agreement to guard US TikTok user data and says it has spent greater than $2 billion on the hassle.
The draft agreement included giving the US government a “kill switch” to suspend TikTok in the US at the federal government’s sole discretion if the corporate didn’t comply with the agreement and says the US demanded that TikTok’s source code be moved out of China.
“This administration has determined that it prefers to attempt to shut down TikTok in the US and eliminate a platform of speech for 170 million Americans, reasonably than proceed to work on a practical, feasible, and effective solution to guard US users through an enforceable agreement with the US government,” TikTok lawyers wrote the Justice Department in an April 1 email made public on Thursday.
The Justice Department declined to comment on the e-mail but said last month the law “addresses critical national security concerns in a way that’s consistent with the First Amendment and other constitutional limitations.” It said it might defend the laws in court.
In 2020, then-President Donald Trump was blocked by the courts in his bid to ban TikTok and Chinese-owned WeChat, a unit of Tencent in the US.
The White House says it desires to see Chinese-based ownership ended on national security grounds, but not a ban on TikTok.
Earlier this month, Trump joined TikTok and has recently raised concerns a couple of potential ban.
The law prohibits app stores like those of Apple and Alphabet’s Google from offering TikTok.
It also bars web hosting services from supporting TikTok unless it’s divested by ByteDance.
