TikTok files lawsuit against US government: What scenario is next?

The move comes just two weeks after US President Joe Biden signed the controversial law into law. While US officials have stressed that it is a measure to ensure national security, ByteDance and TikTok have argued that the decision is unconstitutional, unfairly discriminatory and an unprecedented attack on freedom of speech.

Much controversy

In a lawsuit filed with the Court of Appeals in Washington, ByteDance argued that the new law passed by the US government that considers TikTok ownership a national security threat because it could share US users' data with China is inconsistent with the First Amendment when it cannot provide evidence for this allegation.

“For the first time in history, the United States Congress has enacted a law mandating a single platform be permanently banned worldwide,” the lawsuit states. The lawsuit is the latest development in a long-running legal battle over TikTok’s future in the United States. It should be noted that recently,US President Joe Bidensigned a bill that would force ByteDance to divest TikTok within nine months or face being banned in the U.S. It’s part of a broader foreign aid plan and marks the first time the U.S. has targeted a social media company by name. If the sale goes through, the company would have another three months to complete the transaction.

However, in many statements, ByteDance has affirmed that it has no plans to sell TikTok. And even if it wanted to divest, it would not be easy to do so, because the company does not want to give up its core algorithm. This is considered a unique algorithm that has created outstanding success for TikTok that no other social networking company has been able to do.

There was also information that ByteDance may also be planning to build some scenarios about the future of TikTok's business in the US without this special algorithm. However, the company immediately affirmed once again that: "There will be no plans to sell TikTok".

Furthermore, according to ByteDance, the new law passed by the US government will leave the company with no choice but to close before January 19, 2025, and continuing to operate in the US will not be commercially, technologically or legally feasible.

As a technologically impossible scenario, the law requires TikTok’s millions of lines of software code to be taken back from ByteDance in the event of a divestment, to ensure that “there is no relationship between the Chinese company and a new American acquirer.”

It’s also important that ByteDance can’t divest the TikTok US platform as a separate entity from the rest of TikTok, which has 1 billion users globally. That would leave the 170 million TikTok users in the US as an isolated island, completely cut off from the rest of the world and completely disconnected from the majority of the app’s community.

Who wins - Who loses?

After ByteDance and TikTok filed a lawsuit against the US government, the US Department of Justice declined to comment on the lawsuit. Meanwhile, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre also refused to answer questions about why President Joe Biden's team continued to use TikTok for political and election activities in the past.

Still, in a statement defending the new legislation, Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, a Democrat from Illinois, reiterated that “this is the only way to address the national security threat posed by ByteDance’s ownership of social media apps like TikTok. Instead of continuing its deceptive tactics, it is time for ByteDance to begin the divestment process.”

Meanwhile, Gus Hurwitz, a senior fellow at the Carey School of Law at the University of Pennsylvania, said that in the short term, ByteDance could ask the court to temporarily block the law from taking effect to buy time to resolve the case properly. But this is of course not easy, because the court will have to consider balancing important issues such as freedom of speech and allegations of harm to national security. However, some experts believe that the court may side with the US government on the argument that national security is the top priority.

This is the second time TikTok has faced legal challenges from the US government. Looking back in 2020, former President Donald Trump also tried to ban this short video sharing platform but was blocked by state courts. With this time, many opinions say that the lawsuit is likely to be brought to the US Supreme Court due to the complexity of the issue. Because in fact, the battle over TikTok is taking place in the context ofcompetition between the US and ChinaThe tensions are escalating and continue to spread to many different areas, especially in areas such as advanced technology and data security - which play a crucial role in the economic strength and security of each country.

US lawmakers from both the Democratic and Republican parties have expressed concern that the Chinese government could force ByteDance to hand over US user data or manipulate algorithms to influence public opinion...

Some experts have pointed out that TikTok’s content is being exaggerated or being disseminated and formatted in a way that benefits China. Of course, ByteDance has denied all these allegations. In the same vein, some other opinions also say that it is not easy for the Chinese government or any other party to obtain information from American users, even through brokers and personal information traders.

Commenting on the ongoing tensions, Patrick Toomey - Deputy Director of the National Security Project of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said that data collection by social media applications, if true, will have real consequences for users' privacy. But banning a platform used by millions of people is not the solution. Instead, Americans need Congress to pass strong privacy protection laws in the first place.

Meanwhile, Jameel Jaffer - Executive Director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, expects TikTok's lawsuit to be successful, explaining that, "The First Amendment makes it clear that the government cannot restrict Americans' access to foreign ideas, information networks, or media without good reason."

But while TikTok has prevailed in previous First Amendment lawsuits, it's unclear whether this one will be as straightforward, some observers say.

According to Gautam Hans, a law professor at Cornell University, each side has its own arguments, but it is certain that in the coming time, without public discussions about exactly what risks and threats TikTok poses, it will be difficult for US courts to accept such an unprecedented law./.