TikTok ban sparks legal controversy in US

The US requires ByteDance to choose to sell or divest TikTok in the US by January 19, 2025, or face a ban.

The US requires ByteDance to choose to sell or divest TikTok in the US before January 19, 2025. (Source: Getty)

On September 15, lawyers representing TikTok and its Chinese parent company ByteDance presented to the Federal Court of Appeals to block the law banning the app in the US.

A panel of the Washington Federal Court of Appeals debated for two hours on a filing by TikTok and ByteDance asking for the ban on the social media platform to be lifted.

The US government believes that TikTok, under the ownership of a Chinese company, allows access to users' personal data, enabling Beijing to manipulate information and threatening national security. Accordingly, Washington will ban this application from January 19, 2025.

According to lawyer Andrew Pincus representing TikTok, Washington has not proven the security risks from the application, and asserted that this ban violates the US Constitution, especially the First Amendment protecting freedom of speech.

“For the first time in history, Congress has targeted a specific audience, banning the free speech of an app and 170 million Americans,” Mr. Pincus stressed.

Meanwhile, Washington requires ByteDance to choose to sell or divest TikTok in the US before January 19, 2025, or face a ban.

Concerned that Beijing could access data and monitor the activities of American users, Congress overwhelmingly passed the ban. President Joe Biden also signed the proposal into law in April 2024.

US Justice Department representative Daniel Tenny supported the bill, noting the complexity of overseeing TikTok’s source code, which has more than two billion lines of code that are updated daily. “There is so much happening in China that is outside of US control that it poses a serious security threat,” Mr. Tenny warned.

However, there are also mixed opinions within the US judiciary itself. Justice Neomi Rao questioned the need to verify source code in the context of constant change, while Justice Douglas Ginsburg compared it to the prohibition on foreign ownership of broadcasting licenses.

Additionally, Justice Sri Srinivasan questioned whether Congress has the power to ban foreign ownership of major media outlets in the event of a tense US confrontation with China.

Under the ban, app stores like Apple and Google must stop offering TikTok if ByteDance fails to divest by the deadline. President Joe Biden could extend the deadline by three months if the tech giant ByteDance shows progress in selling TikTok.

Both TikTok and the US Department of Justice are asking for a ruling by December 6, 2024, so the Supreme Court can review the ban before it goes into effect. The lawsuit comes at a sensitive time as the US presidential election campaign enters its final stages.

Notably, candidates like Donald Trump and Kamala Harris have both used TikTok to appeal to younger voters. Trump, who failed to ban TikTok in 2020, has vowed to lift the ban if elected.

Source: https://baoquocte.vn/lenh-cam-su-dung-tiktok-gay-tranh-cai-phap-ly-tai-my-286662.html