What’s Happened?
TikTok and the US Justice Department faced off in federal court on Monday (September 16) to present their arguments over a law that could ban the social media platform in the United States.
During the hearing at the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit, both sides were given 25 minutes to present their arguments.
TikTok argued that the law, which requires its parent company ByteDance to divest its US assets by January 2025 or face a ban, violates the First Amendment’s guarantee of freedom of speech. The company’s attorney, Andrew Pincus, stressed that the law is a “radical departure” from the United States’ support for an open internet and would set a “dangerous precedent.”
“No compelling reason justifies Congress acting like an enforcement agency and specifically targeting petitioners,” Pincus was quoted by CBS News as saying.
Pincus added that the ban would restrict not only TikTok’s speech but also that of 170 million American users.
Meanwhile, the Justice Department, represented by attorney Daniel Tenny, defended the law, arguing that the ban is necessary to protect national security, claiming that the problem arises out of the data being “extremely valuable to a foreign adversary trying to compromise the security of the United States.”
The court hearing marks just the latest development in a series of legal challenges and regulatory actions against TikTok in the US. The app has navigated a complex regulatory landscape and faced intense scrutiny from government officials.