TikTok Vows Legal Challenge As US Congress Presses On Ban

TikTok has stated its plans to file a legal challenge if the US Congress passes legislation that raises the possibility of an app ban in the US.

TikTok’s head of public policy for America, Michael Beckerman, informed staff members in a memo that the House of Representatives was about to pass a foreign aid package that contained language that might result in the platform being banned. The bill might get through the Senate in a matter of days.

Beckerman wrote to staff, “We will proceed to the courts for a legal challenge once the bill is signed [by President Joe Biden],” while depicting the bill’s passage as “an unprecedented deal worked out between the Republican Speaker [Mike Johnson] and President Biden.”

Beckerman added, “This is the beginning of this long process, not the end.” He requested staff members to attend an internal town hall set for Wednesday to provide “further context.”

The law stipulates that ByteDance, the Chinese parent company of TikTok, must sell the app within 270 days or else it will be unlawful for US app stores to permit users to download TikTok. The bill also gives Biden the option to extend that deadline by an additional ninety days if he finds progress in reaching a sale.

TikTok has already openly opposed the legislation, seeing it as an infringement on the First Amendment rights of its users and hinting at its legal approach. Contrarily, advocates of the Act have refuted claims that it is an outright prohibition, arguing instead that it is an essential measure in protecting Americans’ data.

TikTok may have a case on the First Amendment according to legal experts, who point out that courts tend to consider challenged laws’ overall effects on Americans’ freedom of speech rather than just their stated intentions.