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TikTok has faced opposition in a US federal court in its efforts to block a law that forces its Chinese owners to sell the app or face a ban in the United States.
Three judges on the U.S. District of Columbia Court of Appeals on Monday heard from TikTok, ByteDance and a group of users who claim the ban violates the right to free speech guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.
Since the US Congress passed the law in April, the fate of TikTok in the US has become a major topic of political debate.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is opposed to any ban on the hugely popular platform, after he himself tried to ban it in 2020, at the end of his term.
President Joe Biden, for his part, has signed a law giving the popular Asian firm TikTok until January to stop being owned by a Chinese company and become American.
His vice president, Kamala Harris, is the current Democratic candidate for the White House.
ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, has said it has no intention of divesting itself of its prized app. Legal action is therefore its only option to survive in the United States. In their questions, the judges questioned this argument by comparing it to previous cases in American jurisprudence.
Among them, one from the 1980s in which the closure of the Palestinian Information Office in Washington was deemed legal because it was backed by the PLO, an organization officially designated as a terrorist group.
“Mere foreign ownership cannot be a justification, because it would turn the First Amendment (which protects freedom of expression) on its head,” TikTok’s lawyer replied.
A ban would likely provoke a strong reaction from Beijing and further strain US-China relations.
The justices will rule on the case in the coming weeks or months. But whatever their decision, it is likely to be heard by the US Supreme Court.
“After hearing oral arguments, I am even more convinced that this case will end up in the Supreme Court,” said Sarah Kreps, director of the Cornell Technology Policy Institute.
“Overall, the justices sounded more skeptical of the TikTok case, but they also raised important questions about the First Amendment, foreign influence, and standards of scrutiny that I don’t think have been clearly resolved by today’s exchanges,” he added. TikTok claims that “the Constitution is on (its) side” and adds that the law would silence the voices of 170 million Americans. /AFP
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2024-09-19 11:37:05