The Justice Department responded late Friday to TikTok’s legal suit, which sought to undermine a rule requiring the app to be sold or risk a US ban.
TikTok’s lawsuit in a Washington federal court claims that the statute violates its First Amendment right to free speech.
The US answer argues that the statute is about national security, not speech, and that TikTok’s Chinese parent business, ByteDance, cannot claim First Amendment rights here.
According to senior justice department officials, the submission raises fears that ByteDance may and would comply with Chinese government demands for data about US users, as well as bow to pressure to censor or promote content on the site.
“The goal of this law is to ensure that young people, old people and everyone in between is able to use the platform in a safe manner,” a senior justice department official said.
“And to use it in a way confident that their data is not ultimately going back to the Chinese government and what they’re watching is not being directed by or censored by the Chinese government.”
The response argues that the law’s focus on foreign ownership of TikTok takes it out of the realm of the First Amendment.
US intelligence agencies are concerned that China can “weaponize” mobile apps, justice department officials said.
“It’s clear that the Chinese government has for years been pursuing large, structured datasets of Americans through all sorts of manner, including malicious cyber activity; including efforts to buy that data from data brokers and others, and including efforts to build sophisticated AI models that can utilize that data,” a senior justice department official said.
TikTok has said the demanded divestiture is “simply not possible” — and not on the timeline required.
The bill signed by President Joe Biden early this year set a mid-January 2025 deadline for TikTok to find a non-Chinese buyer or face a US ban.
The White House can extend the deadline by 90 days.
“For the first time in history, Congress has enacted a law that subjects a single, named speech platform to a permanent, nationwide ban, and bars every American from participating in a unique online community with more than one billion people worldwide,” said the suit by TikTok and ByteDance.
TikTok shutdown?
ByteDance has said it has no plans to sell TikTok, leaving the lawsuit, which will likely go to the US Supreme Court, as its only option to avoid a ban.
“There is no question: the Act will force a shutdown of TikTok by January 19, 2025,” the lawsuit said, “silencing (those) who use the platform to communicate in ways that cannot be replicated elsewhere.”
TikTok was first targeted by former President Donald Trump’s administration, which unsuccessfully attempted to ban it.
That endeavor became mired down in the courts when a federal judge temporarily barred Trump’s efforts, claiming that the reasons for banning the app were likely exaggerated and that free speech rights were jeopardized.
The latest initiative authorized by Biden was intended to address the same legal issues, and some experts believe the US Supreme Court may be willing to allow national security concerns to trump free speech protections.
“We view the statute as a game changer from the arguments that were in play back in 2020,” a senior justice department official said.
Even if ByteDance agrees to the request, there is no guarantee that a buyer will emerge to purchase TikTok.
Big tech’s typical suspects, such as Facebook parent Meta and YouTube’s Google, will most likely be prevented from acquiring TikTok due to antitrust concerns, while others may be unable to afford one of the world’s most successful apps, which is used by over 170 million people in the United States alone.