A three-judge federal court in the United States will hear TikTok’s appeal Monday following the Biden administration’s passing of a law requiring the video-sharing app to divest from its Chinese ownership or face a complete ban in the country.
In April, President Joe Biden signed legislation that requires ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, to either sell the platform or face a ban in the U.S. after American legislators raised concerns that China’s Communist regime was using TikTok to collect data and spread misinformation among Americans.
ByteDance will be forced to sell TikTok within 270 days or face a total ban after the law takes effect on Jan. 19, The Hill reported.
ByteDance has refused the call to divest, stating in court, “The government asks this Court to bless the most sweeping speech restriction in this country’s history — a law that singles out and shutters a speech platform used by 170 million Americans.”
The court will hear arguments from TikTok’s attorney, the creators’ attorney and the Justice Department, which is defending the law. The parties have requested the court to decide by Dec. 6 so that the losing party gets time to appeal with the Supreme Court before the law takes effect in January.
TikTok argues the law violates the free speech clause in the First Amendment and that the company is being targeted based on propaganda.
“The First Amendment requires this Court to examine such an extraordinary speech restriction with the utmost care and most exacting scrutiny,” the company wrote in court filings. “Yet Congress gave this Court almost nothing to review. Congress enacted no findings, so there is no way to know why majorities of the House and Senate decided to ban TikTok.”
During his testimony before Congress last year, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew rejected allegations of selling user data. However, critics noted that he did not address questions regarding how the app handles the data it collects or its connections to China.
TikTok and its parent company stated that divestment is not an option and that the app would have to shut down by Jan. 19 if the courts don’t intervene to block the law, AP reported.
“Even if divestiture were feasible, TikTok in the United States would still be reduced to a shell of its former self, stripped of the innovative and expressive technology that tailors content to each user,” the companies stated. “It would also become an island, preventing Americans from exchanging views with the global TikTok community.”
Several social groups and free speech advocates have voiced their opposition to the law, saying that it will disrupt marketing, retail, and content creation. They have submitted amicus briefs that the proposed law infringes the First Amendment rights of users and disrupts a widely popular online tool that is used to connect with the masses with regard to social causes.
TikTok claims that two years ago it agreed to third-party monitoring, content moderation, and storing U.S. user data controlled by Oracle, among other measures put forward by the Biden administration. However, the deal fell through after government officials withdrew from ongoing negotiations. The company reported spending $2 billion to implement the proposed measures.
Justice officials said the 90-page draft agreement the company presented during the negotiation was rejected due to its size and technical complexity. They have been demanding TikTok to cut ties with its parent company, considering the intertwined relationship the Chinese companies maintain with the Chinese government.
Jameel Jaffer, executive director of Columbia University’s Knight First Amendment Institute, stated the proposed law is indicative of “repressive regimes.”
“We should be very wary of letting the practice take root here,” Jaffer said, adding, “At the very least, the government should be required to demonstrate that the ban is actually necessary. It hasn’t done that, and it can’t.”
