ByteDance, which owns TikTok, has taken legal action in a U.S. appeals court to stop a recent law.
As covered in The Dallas Express, Last month, Congress passed a law requiring the Chinese-owned app to be sold or face a nationwide ban.
The law targets TikTok due to national security concerns about ByteDance being a Chinese company, and according to Chinese law, the company must give data to the Chinese Communist Party. Reports on national security and a recent study suggest that apps like TikTok collect a lot of personal data on users that could be misused. reported on by The Dallas Express.
However, the potential U.S. ban on TikTok has sparked debate over First Amendment rights.
ByteDance stated in its filing on Tuesday that “Congress could abuse national security to bypass the First Amendment and force any newspaper or website publisher to sell their business to avoid being shut down.” complaint “For TikTok, being forced to sell would cut off Americans from the rest of the global community on a platform that promotes shared content — a situation that goes against the Constitution’s support for free speech and individual freedom.”
TikTok previously won a First Amendment case when Montana tried to ban the app. A federal judge stopped the law from taking effect in November 2023. Similar, broader laws have been passed in Texas and Florida, as previously reported by
The Dallas Express reported by At the same time, a bipartisan group of Congressional members supported the bill, and President Joe Biden immediately signed it into law. Now the courts will have to weigh in..
Gautam Hans, a law professor and First Amendment Clinic associate director at Cornell University, mentioned that “The bipartisan nature of this federal law may lead judges to defer to Congress’ view that the company poses a national security threat,” as
reported by The Associated Press. reported However, without public discussion of the specific risks involved, it's hard to understand why the courts should uphold such an unprecedented law.”
The U.S. government has not provided any proof that ByteDance has exposed data to the Chinese government or that TikTok's algorithm is used to influence users’ opinions.
There are differing opinions on whether the lawsuit will be successful.
Jameel Jaffer, executive director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, stated, “The First Amendment means the government can’t stop Americans from accessing ideas, information, or media from abroad without a very good reason — and there's no such reason here.”
However, Matthew Schettenhelm, an analyst for Bloomberg Intelligence, believes ByteDance has a much lower chance of success.
He said, “We think TikTok has a 30% chance of winning and anticipate a ruling in an expedited case in the 4th quarter. The D.C. Circuit judges are not national-security experts, and they are likely to defer to Congress’ decision unless they find a clear violation of the First Amendment.” gave “The U.S. government has not presented any evidence that ByteDance has exposed data to the Chinese government or that the algorithm used by TikTok is used in a way to influence user’s opinions.
The company that owns the popular video-sharing app TikTok, called ByteDance, has taken legal action in a U.S. appeals court to stop a new law. The law, mentioned in The Dallas Express, was passed by Congress last month and it demands that the Chinese-owned app must be sold off, otherwise it will be banned nationwide. The law targets the app specifically.
