TikTok to begin appeal against possible US ban

TikTok will go head-to-head with the US government on Monday as it launches an appeal against new laws which require the social media giant to split from its China-based parent firm, or face a ban.

In April, US President Joe Biden signed a new law which gave TikTok until January next year to separate its US business from parent firm ByteDance, whose ties to China are seen as a national security threat by the American government.

Now, TikTok is challenging the move in court, arguing that it breaches the US Constitution’s First Amendment on the right to free expression.

The two sides are now set to meet in a federal court in what could be a hugely consequential case for social media in the US and beyond.

In court documents submitted over the summer, the US Justice Department laid out the government’s two main concerns – that TikTok collects vast amounts of user data and this could fall into the hands of the Chinese government, and that the algorithm that powers recommendations on the site is vulnerable to manipulation by Beijing.

TikTok has repeatedly said it does not share US user data with the Chinese government, and in its appeal warned that a break-up would not be possible and the app would have to shut down if the courts don not intervene to block the law.

In documents filed in June, TikTok said a split would reduce the site to a “shell of its former self” and that it would become an “island” that would prevent Americans from “exchanging views with the global TikTok community”.

The US is not alone in raising fears about potential Chinese influence on TikTok.

A number of other governments, including the UK’s, have banned the app from Government devices over fears of Chinese influence.

But opponents of the new US law have also warned of the potential disruption any ban could cause in the worlds of marketing, retail and to the lives of the millions of content creators who use TikTok to earn a living.

A group of creators have also sued the US government, with TikTok covering the legal costs of that case, and has now been consolidated with the company’s own complaint.