On Monday, TikTok will try to persuade a federal judge that a rule mandating the video-sharing app to give up its Chinese ownership or risk being blocked in the US is unconstitutional.
The Republican presidential nominee, Donald Trump, is opposed to any restriction on the immensely popular app TikTok, making it a major topic of discussion in the nation's political discourse regarding the future of Americans' access to the program.
The bill that gives TikTok until January to give up its Chinese ownership or face expulsion from the US market was signed by Democratic President Joe Biden, whose vice president Kamala Harris is running against Trump.
The main firm of TikTok, ByteDance, has said that it has no intention of selling the app; instead, its only chance of surviving is through a judicial appeal that centers on US safeguards for free expression.
The Chinese government would probably take significant action in response to a ban, further straining US-China relations.
The US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit, consisting of three judges, will hear arguments from TikTok, ByteDance, and a group of users.
They will primarily contend that the law violates free speech rights.
The matter will be decided by the courts in the upcoming weeks or months, but the US Supreme Court will probably hear the issue eventually.
TikTok's appeal claimed that the Act would undoubtedly force the company to shut down by January 19, 2025, "silencing those who use the platform to communicate in ways that cannot be replicated elsewhere."
Additionally, TikTok contended that the app "would still be reduced to a shell of its former self, stripped of the innovative and expressive technology that tailors content to each user," even in the unlikely event that divestiture were permitted.
In an attempt to secure a decision that would benefit the app and its 170 million American users, TikTok claims that "the Constitution is on our side."
The US government responds that ByteDance cannot assert First Amendment rights in the US because the law deals with national security issues rather than communication.
The US Justice Department stated in its complaint that "China's ability to use TikTok's features to achieve its overarching objective to undermine American interests creates a national-security threat of immense depth and scale, especially given TikTok's broad reach within the United States."
According to the US, ByteDance may and would give in to pressure from the Chinese government to censor or promote content on the site, or it could cooperate with demands for data about US users.
TikTok first faced scrutiny under former President Trump’s administration, which tried unsuccessfully to ban it.
This attempt was put on hold when a federal judge temporarily suspended Trump's action, citing possible free speech violations, among other reasons. Since then, Trump has modified his stance.
In a video clip from last week, he added, "For all of those that want to save TikTok in America, vote for Trump."
Biden's reelection campaign set up a TikTok account early this year, a sign of the app's popularity.
Since then, Biden has withdrawn from the contest for reelection, but Harris, the candidate vying for his seat, has maintained an online presence on the app as well, having recognized the value of social media in reaching out to younger people.
The goal of Biden's latest endeavor is to get over the legal obstacles that Trump had to confront in the past, but some analysts think it will be tough for the US Supreme Court to rule that free speech rights would be superseded by national security concerns.
Carl Tobias, a professor at the University of Richmond School of Law, stated that evaluating the US side's national security concerns is made more difficult because a large portion of them are confidential.
He continued, "But when government regulation restricts First Amendment rights, especially involving the internet, the US Supreme Court has generally been very cautious about accepting national security arguments."
The GSB Hub published this content on 16 Oct,2024.