Tick tock responds to the United States’ attempt to force its sale. Two weeks ago, the US gave the app’s parent company Byte Dance, a year in total to sell the social platform. In response, both companies are taking a new lawsuit to court in the USA!
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TikTok’s lawsuit says the following
TikTok and ByteDance filed their lawsuit on Tuesday (May 7). According to the Associated Press, the Chinese company says the law “wrongly highlights [their] platform and is an unprecedented attack on free expression.”
ByteDance claims the new law is not based on evidence that shows TikTok poses a threat to national security. Instead, it claims the US is trying to circumvent the First Amendment and “regulate ownership of TikTok.”
“For the first time in history, Congress has passed a law that subjects a single, designated speech platform to a permanent, nationwide ban and prohibits every American from participating in a unique online community of more than 1 billion people worldwide,” ByteDance claims in the lawsuit filed in a Washington appeals court.
The companies also argue that they should be protected by the First Amendment’s free speech guarantee and are seeking a declaratory judgment that it is unconstitutional.
The lawsuit is the latest twist in a long-running legal battle over TikTok’s future in the United States — and one that could end up in the Supreme Court. If TikTok loses, the company says it will have to close by January 19th, as further business activity in the USA would be neither commercially, technically nor legally possible.
Why is TikTok even banned?
President Joe Biden signed the ban bill on April 24. The TikTok security measure was just part of a $95 million spending package that includes aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. It landed on Biden’s desk by a bipartisan vote of 79-18. Only 15 Republicans and three Democrats voted against the deal.
As for the security concerns, the US argued that Beijing-based ByteDance was subject to Chinese law. The United States believes that the Chinese government could force ByteDance to hand over confidential information about millions of American users at any time. This includes names and visual recognition data.
Here’s how the one-year period breaks down: TikTok has nine months to sell to a U.S.-approved buyer. If a sale is made within this period, they have three additional months to complete the sale.
But ByteDance refuses to sell TikTok. A sale would mean cutting it off from the global market and making it a U.S.-only platform, which the company says would be impossible. Additionally, it would mean ByteDance disclosing its software code, meaning there would be no “operating relationship” between ByteDance and the US-only version of TikTok.
Where else is the app banned?
The rest of the world is slowly moving towards banning and partially restricting the app in their countries. According to AP, at least 19 countries (20 including the U.S.) have some level of regulation regarding the video-based app.
In addition to the law on sales, the US already requires government agencies to keep the TikTok app off federal devices and systems. Congress, the US Armed Forces and more than half of the country also ban the use of the app on official devices.
The following companies reportedly have similar government equipment laws:
Afghanistan, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, the European Union, France, Indonesia, Latvia, the Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, Somalia, Taiwan and the United Kingdom.
It has never been available for download in China and in 2020, India banned it and other Chinese apps nationwide. Nepal also banned it nationwide in November 2023, and Pakistan has temporarily banned it at least four times since 2020, according to the AP
If ByteDance isn’t sold, the US will delete the app from Apple and Google’s app stores next year.
This would also mean that TikTok would be unable to send updates, security patches, and bug fixes, and the app would likely become unusable over time – not to mention a security risk.