Attorneys representing the social media application TikTok and its China-based parent company, ByteDance, are poised to clash with lawyers from the Department of Justice on Monday in a case that could decide the fate of the service in the United States.
The case, which will be heard in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, consolidates several lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of a law enacted earlier this year.
The measure, which had broad bipartisan support in Congress, demands that ByteDance sell TikTok to a non-Chinese owner before January 19, 2025, or be forced to shut down its service within the U.S.
The law’s challengers claim that it represents an unconstitutional suppression of free speech, violating the First Amendment rights of TikTok’s estimated 170 million U.S. users.
The Department of Justice contends that TikTok presents a national security threat because it collects personal data of American citizens and, despite assurances to the contrary, could be compelled by the Chinese government to provide that data on demand.
The government also says that the platform’s recommendation algorithm, which determines what content individual users see, could be manipulated by the Chinese government to shape public opinion in the U.S.
TikTok’s argument
Congress passed the measure targeting TikTok, known as the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, as part of a sprawling foreign aid bill in April.
The measure gave the company a 270-day deadline to sell itself or shut down operations in the U.S.
The company immediately protested, claiming that the move was plainly a violation of the First Amendment.
“Never before has Congress expressly singled out and shut down a specific speech forum,” the company said in legal filings. “Never before has Congress silenced so much speech in a single act.”
In addition, the company insisted that it is being forced to choose between two untenable alternatives.
A shutdown that cuts the U.S. out of a global network of billions of TikTok users would be extremely onerous to manage from a technological standpoint and would greatly devalue TikTok as an advertising platform, making it impossible for the company to compete with other social networks.
(VOA)
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