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TikTok and parent ByteDance call security concerns in US divest-or-ban law ‘speculative’
- A legal brief filed on Thursday by TikTok and ByteDance asserted that the US divest-or-ban law ‘falls short of what the First Amendment requires’
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Coco Fengin Beijing
TikTok and parent firm ByteDance depicted the security concerns raised by American lawmakers and government officials about the short video platform as purely “speculative” and without evidence to validate accusations against the popular app.
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That description was made in a legal brief filed on Thursday by TikTok and ByteDance, which asserted that the basis of the US divest-or-ban law against the popular social media app “falls short of what the First Amendment requires”.
The brief was filed to the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, which had ordered the legal challenges against that new law set for oral arguments in September after TikTok, ByteDance and a group of the app’s content creators joined with the US Department of Justice in May in asking the court for a quick schedule.
TikTok in a letter on Thursday also accused the Biden administration of engaging in “political demagoguery” during high-stakes negotiations between the government and the company, as the social media platform sought to relieve concerns about its presence in the US.
The legal brief reflects the confidence of TikTok and ByteDance in their much-anticipated challenge to the new law, which set a January 19 deadline for ByteDance to divest the US operations of TikTok or face a blanket ban across all app stores in the country.
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The two plaintiffs also dismissed allegations about China’s influence in the short video app’s operations in the US.
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