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TikTok faces tough questions from court over challenge to US law

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TikTok faces tough questions from court over challenge to US law

David Shepardson
 |  Reuters

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  • TikTok and ByteDance are seeking an injunction to block a law that could ban the short video app in the United States.
  • The law gives ByteDance until Jan. 19 to sell or divest TikTok’s U.S. assets or face a ban.
  • The case is playing out during the final weeks of the U.S. presidential campaign.

WASHINGTON — A lawyer for TikTok and Chinese parent company ByteDance faced tough questions on Monday as a U.S. appeals court heard arguments in their lawsuit seeking to block a law that could ban the short video app used by 170 million Americans as soon as Jan. 19.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia began hearing arguments in the suit filed by TikTok and ByteDance in May seeking an injunction barring the law from taking effect.

The judges questioned TikTok’s outside lawyer Andrew Pincus, who argued that the U.S. government had not demonstrated that TikTok poses national security risks and that the law violates the U.S. Constitution on a number of grounds including running afoul of First Amendment free speech protections.

“The law before this court is unprecedented, and its effect would be staggering,” Pincus told the judges, saying “for the first time in history, Congress has expressly targeted a specific U.S. speaker, banning its speech and the speech of 170 million Americans.”

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The law gives ByteDance until Jan. 19 to sell or divest TikTok’s U.S. assets or face a ban in the United States. Driven by worries among American lawmakers that China could access data on Americans or spy on them with the app, the U.S. Congress passed the measure with overwhelming support and President Joe Biden signed it into law in April.

The law prohibits app stores like Apple and Alphabet’s Google from offering TikTok and bars internet hosting services from supporting TikTok unless ByteDance divests TikTok by the deadline. Under the law, Biden could extend the deadline by three months if he certifies ByteDance is making significant progress toward a sale.

Judges Sri Srinivasan, Neomi Rao and Douglas Ginsburg were hearing the arguments.

The case is playing out during the final weeks of the U.S. presidential campaign. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, his Democratic rival, are active on TikTok, seeking to court younger voters.

The Justice Department has said TikTok, under Chinese ownership, poses a serious national security threat because of its access to vast amounts of personal data on Americans, asserting China can covertly manipulate information that Americans consume via TikTok.

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ByteDance has said divestiture is “not possible technologically, commercially or legally.”

TikTok and the Justice Department have asked for a ruling by Dec. 6, which could allow the U.S. Supreme Court to consider any appeal before a ban takes effect.

The White House has said it wants to see Chinese-based ownership ended on national security grounds, but not a ban on TikTok. Trump, who unsuccessfully tried to ban TikTok in 2020, has said if elected in November he would not allow TikTok to be banned.

Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Sonali Paul and Will Dunham

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