TikTok’s legal defeat in the United States. The operator of the short video platform has so far failed to overturn a US law that effectively bans the service in the United States since mid-January. With its unanimous decision, the appeals court responsible for the District of Washington followed the arguments of the US Justice Department, which sees the company as a threat to national security. Chinese company ByteDance is behind TikTok. Politicians from the two major US parties fear Chinese authorities could gain access to massive amounts of user data from the US and misuse the app, which is especially popular among young people, for political influence.
Advertisement
TikTok wanted to obtain a court injunction against the law being implemented. His lawyers argued that the US government has not proven that TikTok poses a national security threat. The legislative initiative also violates the US Constitution. However, the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia (DC), which was already responsible for the law, saw no violation of the First Amendment, which guarantees freedom of speech. The law also does not violate the principle of equal treatment guaranteed by the Fifth Amendment. The judges said that, despite the ban, US citizens could theoretically “continue to read and share as much People’s Republic of China propaganda (or other material) as they wish.” The law targets the ability of competing powers to “secretly manipulate” content.
Trump’s zigzag course
TikTok plans to appeal the decision, which will be a case all the way to the US Supreme Court. It is believed that the Supreme Court will modify the decision and protect the right to free speech for the 170 million TikTok users in the United States, a spokesperson said. The law was “designed and implemented based on false, erroneous, and fictitious information that would result in complete censorship of the American people.” American civil rights organizations such as the ACLU and the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) were also concerned that the ban would clearly violate the rights of millions of American citizens. They are also confident that the next phase of the review will correct this injustice.
However, US Attorney General Merrick Garland called it an important step to prevent the Chinese government from “using TikTok as a weapon.” According to the law, ByteDance must sell TikTok’s US assets by January 19, a day before the end of current US President Joseph Biden’s term. Otherwise, the application should be banned from the App Store and thus effectively banned. ByteDance considers the requested sale to be technically, economically and legally infeasible. For example, the Chinese government has already banned the export of TikTok’s crown jewel, the recommendation algorithm. Donald Trump unsuccessfully tried to ban TikTok during his first term in 2020. He has now apparently changed his mind: the former and future US President recently said that he would not allow the service to be banned. Trump advisor and X owner Elon Musk is reportedly promoting TikTok.
(Agriculture)
