The U.S. Department of Justice has asked a federal appeals court to uphold a law requiring China-based ByteDance to sell TikTok’s U.S. assets, citing national security concerns.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has urged a federal appeals court to support an April law requiring China-based ByteDance to divest its U.S. TikTok assets by January 19 or face a ban. The DOJ’s filing underscores the serious national security threat posed by TikTok’s access to the personal data of millions of Americans, asserting that the Chinese government could covertly manipulate information consumed by U.S. users through the app.
“The serious national-security threat posed by TikTok is real,” the department stated. “TikTok provides the Chinese government the means to undermine U.S. national security in two principal ways: data collection and covert content manipulation.”
The Biden administration has asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to reject lawsuits from TikTok, ByteDance, and a group of TikTok creators seeking to block the law. TikTok has consistently denied allegations that it would share U.S. user data with China or manipulate video results.
In response to the DOJ’s brief, TikTok posted on social media platform X, “The government has never put forth proof of its claims, including when Congress passed this unconstitutional law. Today, once again, the government is taking this unprecedented step while hiding behind secret information.”
The DOJ’s filing highlights extensive national security concerns regarding ByteDance’s ownership of TikTok. “China’s long-term geopolitical strategy involves developing and pre-positioning assets that it can deploy at opportune moments,” the department noted.
While the government acknowledged it had no evidence that the Chinese government had accessed U.S. TikTok user data, it argued that the risk was too significant to ignore. “The United States is not required to wait until its foreign adversary takes specific detrimental actions before responding to such a threat,” the filing emphasized.
The government also submitted a classified document to the court detailing additional security concerns about ByteDance’s ownership of TikTok, supported by declarations from the FBI, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and the DOJ’s National Security Division.
ByteDance had informed the U.S. government that TikTok’s source code comprised 2 billion lines of code, making a comprehensive review impractical. “Oracle estimated it would require three years to review this body of code,” excluding additional changes, the DOJ added.
Signed by President Joe Biden on April 24, the law mandates ByteDance to sell TikTok or face a ban by January 19. The White House insists the goal is to end Chinese-based ownership for national security reasons, not to ban TikTok.
The DOJ rejected arguments from TikTok that the law infringes on Americans’ First Amendment rights, asserting that the law addresses national security concerns, not speech. TikTok users can utilize other platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and X, the DOJ noted.
The DOJ also criticized TikTok’s $2 billion plan to protect U.S. user data, stating that the proposal was insufficient due to a lack of trust in ByteDance and doubts about the company’s capability to prevent violations.
Oral arguments on the legal challenge will be held on September 16, coinciding with the final weeks of the November 5 presidential election. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, who joined TikTok in June, has stated he would never support a TikTok ban. Vice President Kamala Harris, expected to become the Democratic nominee, recently joined TikTok.
The law prohibits app stores like Apple’s App Store and Google’s Play Store from offering TikTok and bars internet hosting services from supporting TikTok unless ByteDance divests the app. Driven by concerns among U.S. lawmakers that China could access American data or use the app for espionage, Congress overwhelmingly passed the measure just weeks after its introduction.
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