TikTok’s push back against the US sell-off bill is set to be fast-tracked by the Court of Appeals. The suit was initiated by a group of content creators against the bill to be heard in September this year. This will be a whole month before the schedule.
This suit means a lot to TikTok. The company thinks that it could help them win a critical legal case against what it sees as an effective ban on the app. This win will strengthen its efforts for pushback of the bill.
Here is what Reuters reported.
“The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ordered the case set for oral arguments in September after TikTok, ByteDance and a group of TikTok content creators joined with the Justice Department earlier this month in asking the court for a quick schedule. On May 14th, a group of TikTok creators filed suit to block the law that could ban the app used by 170 million Americans, saying it has had a profound effect on American life.”
TikTok wants to go with the ‘first amendment rights of American users’ angle to make it seem an unconstitutional action.
The law came into existence over national security concerns and these tend to outweigh the constitutional arguments. If it is proven in court that TikTok can pose a threat to national security, then it is going to be hard for the company to navigate this with legal technicalities.
TikTok always maintains that it shares no data with the Chinese government and it poses no threat to the US or its citizens. The court will rely on the testimonies of cybersecurity experts and insight from the FBI, FCC, and others.
It doesn’t look good for TikTok at this moment and it is likely that it will be forced into a sell-off or banned in the country.
