If you love TikTok and all that comes with it, have fun now because it might not last too much longer. The U.S. government clashed with the popular platform’s lawyers in federal court over a law that could ban the app by mid-January. TikTok is arguing the measure is unconstitutional and the Justice Department claiming it is necessary to eliminate a national security risk.
The legal battle took place before a panel of three judges at a federal appeals court in Washington.
Andrew Pincus, representing TikTok, argued, “The law before this court is unprecedented and its effect would be staggering,” suggesting that it would impose speech limitations based on hypothetical future risks. Additionally, an attorney for content creators who joined the challenge compared the law to banning Americans from publishing on foreign-owned media outlets.
Get this, the law was signed by President Joe Biden in April, comes after years of concern in Washington about TikTok’s ties to China. The U.S. government make a serious claim that TikTok collects sensitive user data that could be accessed by the Chinese government and that the app’s proprietary algorithm could be manipulated to shape content.
What’s more, Daniel Tenny, an attorney for the Justice Department, argued, “The problem is that same data is extremely valuable to a foreign adversary trying to compromise the security of the United States.”
Pincus contended that Congress should have opted for transparency regarding potential propaganda rather than forcing a divestiture or ban.
Interestingly, the judges also pressed the Justice Department on First Amendment concerns. Judge Sri Srinivasan noted that government efforts to curb content manipulation raise alarms regarding free speech. Tenny responded that the law does not directly target TikTok users or creators, suggesting any impact on them would be indirect.
Anyway, TikTok maintains that it does not share U.S. user data with the Chinese government and that divestment is not a feasible option. The company argues that even if divestment were possible, TikTok would lose the technology that powers the app, reducing it to “a shell of its former self.”
TikTok here or gone, it’s part of a bigger construct with the impact of social media in our lives. And that is here to stay.
The post TikTok Back In Federal Court Fighting Law That Might Ban Popular Platform In America first appeared on The Source.
The post TikTok Back In Federal Court Fighting Law That Might Ban Popular Platform In America appeared first on The Source.