TikTok’s Fight to Remain in U.S. Builds to a Climax
By Movieguide® Contributor
With TikTok’s ban in the U.S. growing ever closer, the social media platform is making one of its last attempts to thwart a ban in a court case set to begin on Sept. 16.
After investigations by Congress during the spring of 2023, federal lawmakers passed a bipartisan bill that required TikTok to sell its U.S. operations to a country not designated as a “foreign adversary” or be banned across the country starting on Jan. 19, 2025. President Biden signed the bill into law last April; since then, TikTok has done everything in its power to reverse the legislation.
The platform’s main defense is that banning violates the First Amendment, encroaching on its Constitutionally protected freedom of speech. The government, however, has countered this argument, claiming the app poses an extreme security threat because the company is controlled by the Chinese government and gives them the ability to influence all 170 million American users.
While the extent of the national security issue has yet to be fully revealed to the public, the director of the FBI revealed he believed China was already influencing the American public at large.
The U.S. Justice Department hopes that this top-secret information can be a part of the upcoming trial, as it serves a critical role in their defense. Without this information, it may be difficult for the Justice Department to fully prove that the national security concern trumps the First Amendment argument.
“The government is not trying to litigate in secret, but rather to litigate in public to the greatest extent possible, while still providing the Court with access to the classified information that informed the government’s national-security judgments that are central to this litigation,” the Justice Department said.
The decision of this court case will undoubtedly decide the fate of TikTok. The company has repeatedly said it will not divest its U.S. operation in order to remain in the country. Furthermore, it has already split its U.S. servers, which are now run by the Texas-based tech company Oracle.
“We believe that facts and the law are clearly on our side, and we will ultimately prevail,” TikTok said in a statement shortly after the ban was announced. “The fact is, we have invested billions of dollars to keep U.S; data safe and our platform free from outside influence and manipulations. This ban would devastate seven million businesses and silence 170 million Americans.”
Movieguide® previously reported:
TikTok is doing all it can to avoid being banned on Jan. 19, 2025.
Earlier this year, President Biden signed the Protecting Americans’ Data From Foreign Adversaries Act of 2024 into law.
However, to fight the potential ban, eight TikTok creators announced that they are suing, “arguing that the measure would strip them of their livelihoods and creative outlets,” per The Verge.
Now, “The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ordered the case set for oral arguments in September after TikTok, ByteDance and a group of TikTok content creators joined with the Justice Department earlier this month in asking the court for a quick schedule,” the New York Post reported.
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