Future of US video-sharing app to be decided in federal court

It’s a last resort for TikTok: the (short) video sharing app will try, on Monday, September 16, 2024, to convince a US federal court that the law requiring its sale by its Chinese owners – under penalty of a ban in the United States – is unconstitutional.

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Trump denounces, Biden and Harris validate

Since the law was passed by the US Congress in April 2024, the fate of TikTok in the country has become a major issue in the political debate. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is thus opposed to any ban on the very popular platform, after having himself tried to ban it in 2020, at the end of his term.

President Joe Biden, on the other hand, signed legislation that gives TikTok until January 2025 to no longer be owned by a Chinese company. His vice president, Kamala Harris, is a Democratic candidate for the White House (and thus likely to align with her predecessor’s position).

Only One Option to “Survive” in the United States

TikTok’s parent company ByteDance has said it has no intention of selling off its prized app, making legal action its only option to “survive” in the United States. More broadly, a ban would likely provoke a strong backlash from Beijing and further strain U.S.-China relations.

Three judges from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia are scheduled to hear arguments Monday from TikTok, ByteDance and a group of users, who will essentially argue that the law violates the right to free speech guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.

The justices will rule on the case in the coming weeks or months… But whatever they decide, it is likely to go before the U.S. Supreme Court.

An “empty shell”?

TikTok claims the Constitution is on its side, adding that the law would silence the voices of 170 million Americans: “There is no doubt that the law will shut down TikTok by January 19, 2025,” the company’s lawsuit says, “silencing those who use the platform to communicate in ways that cannot be replicated elsewhere.”

TikTok also argued that even if the divestiture were possible, the app “would still be reduced to an empty shell, devoid of the innovative technology that tailors content to each user.”

To which the US government responded that the law addressed national security issues, not free speech, and that ByteDance could not assert constitutionally protected rights.

Threat to national security

“Given TikTok’s vast reach in the United States, China’s ability to use TikTok’s features to achieve its overall goal of undermining U.S. interests poses a national security threat of immense depth and breadth,” the U.S. Justice Department wrote.

The United States says ByteDance can — and does — comply with Chinese government requests for data on American users. Authorities also say the company acquiesces to pressure to censor or promote certain content on the platform. TikTok denies the allegations.

Towards the Supreme Court

Former President Donald Trump’s 2020 executive orders to ban TikTok were blocked by a federal judge, who cited likely overblown reasons and a potential violation of free speech rights.

Since then, the Republican billionaire, who was very angry with Meta (parent company of Facebook and Instagram) and the other major platforms that temporarily banned him for inciting violence after the storming of the Capitol in 2021, has changed his mind: “everyone who wants to save TikTok in America, vote Trump,” he said in a video published last week.

Democratic candidate Kamala Harris, for her part, is present on TikTok and has adopted social networks as a means of communicating with young voters.

Our “TikTok” file

The new law signed by Joe Biden was designed to overcome legal hurdles, but some experts believe the U.S. Supreme Court will struggle to see national security concerns as outweighing protections for free speech.

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