TikTok is suing the U.S. over a potential ban
Will it be a First Amendment matter or a national security concern?
In response to the signed bill by President Joe Biden citing national justifications, TikTok has sued to block the US law that would ban the video app in the country unless its Chinese parent company sells it.
This comes following reports that TikTok's Chinese owner ByteDance raises the possibility that data on US users would slip into the hands of the Chinese government to be used for propaganda.
In its defense, the social media platform has iterated the act unjustly and as an "extraordinary intrusion on free speech rights" of the company and its 170 million users in the US.
According to a report, Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, claimed the law was "not a ban but a divestment" to maintain security concerns, of which TikTok argued the bill violates the First Amendment.
While TikTok has maintained its independence from the Chinese government, the parent company has declared no plans to sell the business and criticized the bill event as "bullying" of a foreign firm.
Emmanuel Oyedeji
In order to better safeguard user data in the United States from foreign interference, TikTok invested more than $2 billion on a program dubbed "Project Texas" before this incident. However, politicians persisted in their efforts to move legislation forward.
Whether TikTok will win its lawsuit against the US largely hinges on how the courts treat the matter being the first time in history, that Congress has enacted a law that subjects a single, named speech platform to a permanent, nationwide ban.
So will it be a First Amendment matter or a national security concern?
Emmanuel Oyedeji
