China’s TikTok and its parent company ByteDance have responded with legal action against the U.S. legislation recently signed by Joe Biden, which orders ByteDance to divest from TikTok within nine months or face a ban on the app in the U.S.
“Congress has taken the unprecedented step of expressly singling out and banning TikTok,” the petition to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland complains, although the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act could impact several other apps.
“Banning TikTok is so obviously unconstitutional, in fact, that even the Act’s sponsors recognized that reality, and therefore have tried mightily to depict the law not as a ban at all, but merely a regulation of TikTok’s ownership,” the petition alleges, demanding Garland “review the constitutionality” of the legislation.
A TikTok ban cannot come into force until 2025, so it will likely influence the November presidential election, whether or not it is eventually prohibited. The Biden campaign has established a presence on TikTok, and Democratic political action committees (PACs) have invested heavily in influencers on the platform.
Most Americans believe China uses TikTok to manipulate users’ opinions, and research suggests few users buck the app’s algorithm.
While ByteDance claims to be independent of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the government holds “golden shares” in the business, and a CCP official wields a veto on its board. The Chinese Embassy also directly lobbied against the TikTok legislation in Congress, indicating Beijing regards Chinese control over the app as being in the Chinese national interest.
ByteDance has said it would rather see TikTok shut down in the U.S. than divest from it.
Today we filed a petition in federal court seeking to overturn the unconstitutional TikTok ban. Read our petition here: https://t.co/Lx3l4DaRTG
— TikTok Policy (@TikTokPolicy) May 7, 2024