The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has requested the dismissal of a lawsuit filed by TikTok in an appeals court. The lawsuit was filed by TikTok to block a new U.S. law that could potentially result in a nationwide ban on the popular video-sharing app.
In April, President Joe Biden signed the new law, which requires ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese parent company, to either sell the app by next year or face removal from app stores and web-hosting services.
TikTok challenged the constitutionality of this law in May through a lawsuit, arguing that it violated both the company’s and its users’ First Amendment rights in the United States.
On July 26, the DOJ submitted a brief to the federal appeals court expressing concerns about national security threats posed by TikTok. The DOJ highlighted that TikTok collects vast amounts of sensitive data from its 170 million U.S. users, including precise locations, viewing habits, private messages, and even data on users’ phone contacts who do not use TikTok themselves.
The DOJ argued that China’s ruling Communist Party could potentially exploit its authority to access U.S. consumer data and ByteDance’s algorithm. It claimed that this poses a significant national security threat due to TikTok’s extensive reach within the United States.
According to the DOJ, allowing China to control TikTok’s algorithm could enable them to manipulate content for their own malicious purposes such as promoting disinformation and exacerbating social divisions. The department also accused TikTok employees of engaging in “heating,” where certain videos are manually promoted for increased views—a practice that can be used as a powerful tool for manipulating public discourse.
Furthermore, the DOJ contended that misapplying First Amendment protections was inappropriate since national security concerns unique to TikTok’s connection with China were at stake—not suppression of protected speech.
Tiktok responded by stating that they believe their case is supported by constitutional rights and emphasized their confidence in prevailing in court against what they consider an unconstitutional law passed without sufficient evidence or transparency from Congress.
The new law sets an initial deadline for a potential sale of Tiktok by January 2025 but allows President Biden to extend it for another three months if necessary. Despite claims made by ByteDance regarding user data sharing with China’s Communist Party under China’s counterespionage laws if requested; however,Tiktok maintains it has not shared any user data with CCP authorities.
