On Monday September 16, the federal government of the United States will begin its court battle with TikTok as the media company seeks to block a ban on the app being used in America.
The high-profile case was lodged back in April, when President Joe Biden signed a Congressional bill which provided the social media platform’s parent company, ByteDance, with two options. The company could either sell the platform to a buyer approved by the government or watch it get banned from use in the United States.
The case beginning in court this week—which will be heard by a panel of federal appellate judges in Washington, D.C.—will determine the fate of the popular app whose parent company is based in China. It was filed by the company, seeking to overturn the law that would either force them to sell or ban the app by the middle of January 2025. The case is anticipated to end up at the Supreme Court.
According to the federal government, the app is a threat to national security thanks to its links to America’s long-time adversary, China. On the other hand, TikTok alleges that the law is a violation of the First Amendment.
Court documents from this summer indicate that the Department of Justice (DOJ) is primarily worried about the huge amount of data the app collects from users as well as the app’s algorithm potentially being manipulated by the Chinese government. TikTok maintains that it does not reveal American citizen data with China and accused the United States government of making unsubstantiated claims.
The beginning of the court battle comes amid another ongoing legal battle between the American government and TikTok. In August, the DOJ filed a lawsuit against the social media app over allegations that the platform broke privacy laws related to protecting children online.
The suit—which came three months after TikTok sued the government—alleges that the platform violated a federal law which mandates parental consent before gathering data on minor users under the age of 13. It also says that TikTok did not cooperate with parental requests to delete the accounts of their minor children.
