Washington.- This Monday, the social media platform TikTok was in the US court challenging a regulation that threatens to cease its operations in the country as of January next year, seeking to ensure its presence in the US territory, where it enjoys a base of 170 million users.
Oral arguments began this Monday by a panel of three judges of the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, who will consider the lawsuit presented by TikTok and its parent company ByteDance in May. This legal action seeks to prevent the implementation of a law approved by Congress.
The law, sanctioned in April by Congress, would force TikTok to disconnect from ByteDance, its Chinese parent company, or face a ban in the United States.
The statute sets a nine-month deadline, until January 19, for ByteDance to sell its US operations to investors from a non-adversary country as designated by the United States. If not complied with, TikTok would have to cease its operations in the country.
The Joe Biden administration and lawmakers from both Democratic and Republican parties express concern about the possibility that the Chinese government could access information from US users through ByteDance and manipulate public opinion through the content shown on the application.
At today’s hearing, Andrew Pincus, the lawyer defending TikTok, assured that the platform is committed to protecting the privacy of its users and argued that the US government has not justified that the application constitutes a risk to national security.
Additionally, Pincus argued that the law infringes the First Amendment of the US Constitution, which protects freedom of expression.
The case could be appealed to the Supreme Court
If TikTok is prohibited, renowned app stores, such as Apple’s App Store and Google Play, will have to remove the platform from their catalogs. This would restrict users’ ability to download or update the application, depriving millions of Americans of access to the popular network.
Although the deadline set is January 19, Biden can extend this deadline if he certifies that ByteDance is making significant progress towards the sale. He could postpone the term for up to three months more, offering additional time to resolve the situation.
The case could escalate to the Supreme Court. Therefore, both TikTok and the Department of Justice have requested that the appeals court issue a decision before December 6, so that the Supreme Court can review any appeal before the effective date of the ban.
This litigation occurs as the November 5 elections approach, with the campaigns of Republican candidate Donald Trump and Democratic candidate Kamala Harris active on TikTok, trying to attract young voters.
credits of the images of this post: Deultimominuto.net
