TikTok's fight to stay in the US is nearing its climax

Published: August 21, 2024

Photo by Eyestetix Studio via Unsplash

TikTok's fight to stay in the US is nearing its climax

By Movieguide® Contributor

As a ban on TikTok in the US looms ever closer, the social media platform is making one of its last attempts to prevent a ban in a court case set to begin on September 16.

Following congressional investigations in the spring of 2023, federal lawmakers passed a bipartisan bill requiring TikTok to sell its U.S. operations to a country not classified as a “foreign adversary” or face a nationwide ban on TikTok starting January 19, 2025. President Biden signed the bill last April; since then, TikTok has done everything in its power to undo the legislation.

The platform's main defense is that a ban would violate the First Amendment and thus infringe on its constitutionally protected freedom of speech. However, the government has refuted this argument, claiming that the app poses an extreme security risk because the company is controlled by the Chinese government and that the government has the ability to influence all 170 million American users.

While the extent of this national security problem has not yet become fully clear to the public, the FBI director admitted that he is convinced that China already has influence over the American public at large.

The U.S. Department of Justice hopes that this top-secret information will be part of the upcoming trial, as it will play a crucial role in the defense. Without this information, it will be difficult for the Department of Justice to conclusively prove that national security concerns outweigh the First Amendment argument.

“The government seeks not to conduct the trial in secret but to do so as publicly as possible while providing the court with access to the confidential information that the government uses to base its national security decisions, which is central to this trial,” the Justice Department said.

The outcome of this court case will undoubtedly determine TikTok's fate. The company has repeatedly stated that it will not divest its US operations in favor of staying in the country. In addition, it has already split up its US servers, which are now operated by Texas-based technology company Oracle.

“We believe the facts and the law are clearly on our side and we will ultimately prevail,” TikTok said in a statement shortly after the ban was announced. “The fact is, we have invested billions of dollars to protect our data and secure our platform from outside influence and manipulation. This ban would ruin seven million businesses and silence 170 million Americans.”

Movieguide® previously reported:

TikTok is doing everything it can to avoid being banned on January 19, 2025.

Earlier this year, President Biden signed the Protecting Americans' Data From Foreign Adversaries Act of 2024 into law.

However, to fight against the possible ban, eight TikTok developers announced that they would file a lawsuit. “On the grounds that the measure would deprive them of their livelihood and their creative expression,” according to The Verge.

Now, “the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia has scheduled oral arguments in the case for September after TikTok, ByteDance and a group of TikTok content creators joined the Justice Department in requesting expedited scheduling earlier this month,” the New York Post reported.