The Justice Department argued in a court filing on Friday that TikTok should be required to sell its American operations to resolve national security concerns about its Chinese parent company, ByteDance.
In the government’s first detailed response to TikTok’s lawsuit challenging a new U.S. law that could ban the social media app, the Justice Department said measures that TikTok previously offered to address those security concerns — including walling off U.S. user data domestically — were insufficient.
The Chinese government could still collect sensitive data on Americans or spread propaganda, the agency argued, and it has incentive to misuse the app because of larger geopolitical goals.
And while TikTok argued in its suit that the law violated the First Amendment rights of its 170 million U.S. users, the Justice Department contended that those users were free to turn to other social media sites if TikTok was banned or sold.
Under the law, any challenges must begin in that court.
Persons:
walling, TikTok
Organizations:
Justice Department, Department, U.S ., Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit
Locations:
United States, China