A bill allowing ByteDance nine months to sell its US business due to security concerns was signed into lawa by President Joe Biden in April.
The Uncertain Future of TikTok: US Presses for ByteDance’s Operations to Be Sold
President Biden signed a measure in April 2024 requiring ByteDance, the Chinese parent firm of TikTok, to sell its US business within nine months, underscoring continued national security concerns. The future of the immensely popular video-sharing app in the US is now unknown due to this move.
The Chinese government might be able to access user data that TikTok collects, and this could pose a threat to national security, according to concerns voiced by the US government for a long time. Even while TikTok has insisted that user data is kept outside of China, these worries haven’t totally disappeared.
ByteDance is given a tough ultimatum by the new law: sell its US unit in a short amount of time or risk being banned. Locating an appropriate
The owner of the social media site TikTok, ByteDance, has sued the US government in an attempt to overturn a bill that would require it to sell off its US holdings.
ByteDance’s attorneys argued that the law was “obviously unconstitutional” when they filed the complaint in the US Court of Appeals in Washington, DC, on Tuesday.
Less than two weeks ago, on April 24, President Joe Biden signed the legislation as part of a package that also contained humanitarian help for Gaza and foreign aid to Israel and Ukraine.
ByteDance is given nine months by law to sell off its US business. The deadline is January 19, although if a sale is underway, there is a possibility of an additional three-month extension.
However, ByteDance claims in its lawsuit that divestiture will not be feasible in the given time period – “not legally, not technologically, nor commercially.”
Additionally, it claims that a legislation that infringes against the First Amendment of the US Constitution, which guarantees free speech, is unfairly targeting it.
Congress has passed a bill for the first time in history that subjects a single, named
Although ByteDance insisted that it had no intention of selling TikTok, the well-known video-sharing software, it stated that it would not even be possible to do so legally.
The lawsuit stated that millions of lines of code would need to change hands and that any potential owners would need to access ByteDance’s algorithms in order to maintain it, which would be illegal.
“The Act would undoubtedly result in TikTok’s closure by January 19, 2025, effectively stifling the 170 million Americans who rely on the platform for unique forms of communication that cannot be found elsewhere,” the lawsuit stated.
Politicians in the US have criticized TikTok from both parties due to worries about the app’s potential effects on national security.
ByteDance is a Chinese technology business, and some of its detractors worry that the Chinese government would ask to see the data it gathers from consumers, so creating privacy issues.
Members of the US Congress, such as Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi, stated that the April bill is therefore required to safeguard US users.
He stated in a statement on Tuesday that “this is the only way to address the national security threat posed by ByteDance’s ownership of apps like TikTok.” “ByteDance should begin the divestment process immediately rather than persisting in its dishonest business practices.”
ByteDance has openly promised not to give any information about US customers to the Chinese government and has long denied providing any such information, dismissing any fears as “speculative.”
The lawsuit also mentions the company’s $2 billion investment in safeguarding user data in the United States and its obligations under a 90-page proposed “National Security Agreement” with the US government.
For almost four years, TikTok has been under scrutiny by the US government due to ongoing tensions between Beijing and Washington.
For example, in 2020, then-President Donald Trump issued an executive order outlawing the video platform on the grounds of national security.
However, the ban was overturned by federal courts who found that the government had not taken into account a “clear and reasonable alternative before banning TikTok.”
Montana is one of the states that has tried to ban the app in a similar manner. An unprecedented statute, SB 419, was passed into law by Governor Greg Gianforte in April 2023. It imposed fines on TikTok and any app stores that distributed it for operating beyond state borders.
However, it was not certain how Montana intended to carry out the law, which was swiftly contested in court.
Although Montana’s SB 419 was set to go into effect on January 1, a federal judge ultimately decided to block it, giving ByteDance yet another victory. The
