TikTok disputes US claims on China ties in court appeal

By Jody Godoy

(Reuters) – TikTok told a federal appeals court on Thursday that the U.S. Department of Justice has misstated the social media app’s ties to China, urging the court to overturn a law requiring China-based ByteDance to sell TikTok’s U.S. assets or face a ban.

TikTok, which has sued to overturn the law, said the Justice Department has made factual errors in the case. The department’s lawyers said last month that the app poses a national security risk by allowing the Chinese government to collect the data of Americans and covertly manipulate what content they see.

TikTok said on Thursday it is undisputed that the app’s content recommendation engine and user data are stored in the U.S. on cloud servers operated by Oracle (NYSE:) and that content moderation decisions that affect U.S. users are made in the U.S.

Signed by President Joe Biden on April 24, the law gives ByteDance until Jan. 19 to sell TikTok or face a ban. The White House says it wants to see Chinese-based ownership ended on national security grounds, but not a ban on TikTok.

The appeals court will hold oral arguments on the legal challenge on Sept. 16, putting the issue of TikTok’s fate into the final weeks of the Nov. 5 presidential election.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has joined TikTok and said in June he would never support a TikTok ban. 

Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential candidate, joined TikTok in July and leaned in to social media as part of her campaign strategy.

TikTok argued on Thursday that the law would strip the company of its free-speech rights, arguing against the Justice Department’s claim that the short video app’s content curation decisions are “the speech of a foreigner” and not protected by the U.S. Constitution.

“By the government’s logic, a U.S. newspaper that republishes the content of a foreign publication – Reuters, for example – would lack constitutional protection,” the company said.

The law prohibits app stores like Apple (NASDAQ:), and Alphabet (NASDAQ:)’s Google, from offering TikTok and bars internet hosting services from supporting TikTok unless it is divested by ByteDance.

Driven by worries among U.S. lawmakers that China could access data on Americans or spy on them with the app, Congress overwhelmingly passed the measure just weeks after it was introduced.