TikTok is challenging the US government’s ban

First Amendment Defenses to the Utah Speech-Streaming-Approach Detection and Monitoring of Online Community: The Case of the TikTok App

First Amendment lawyers believe that TikTok has a strong case. A federal judge blocked a law from taking effect after it was passed by the state of Montana, saying it likely violated the First Amendment.

“For the first time in history, Congress has enacted a law that subjects a single, named speech platform to a permanent, nationwide ban, and bars every American from participating in a unique online community with more than 1 billion people worldwide,” the lawsuit reads.

According to the filing, the law is based on “speculative and analytically flawed concerns about data security and content manipulation — concerns that, even if grounded in fact, could be addressed through far less restrictive and more narrowly tailored means.”

Constitutional scholars say there aren’t many ways for the government to restrict speech and survive legal challenges. If the government can demonstrate a national security risk, that is one of those ways. Also key, legal experts say, is the government showing the speech suppression was the least restrictive option on the table.

Since then, Democrats and Republicans have shown a rare moment of unity around calls to pressure TikTok to sever its ties with ByteDance, the Beijing-based tech giant that own owns the video-streaming app.

Worries also persist in Washington that Beijing could influence the views of Americans by dictating what videos are boosted on the platform. That concern has only become heightened seven months before a presidential election.

There is no publicly available example of the Chinese government attempting to use TikTok as an espionage or data collection tool. There is no proof that the Chinese government had a hand in what Americans see on the TikTok app.

TikTok, for its part, says it has invested $2 billion on a plan, dubbed Project Texas, to separate its U.S. operation from its Chinese parent company. It moved all of the Americans’ data from foreign server to U.S. server that was overseen by a tech company.

The plan to build trust with U.S. legislators and users didn’t work out because the data was moving between staff in California and Beijing.

Does ByteDance Need to Be Forcing a Sales Sale Of TikTok? A View of Mnuchin

Former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told NPR on Monday, he is planning to assemble a group of investors to try to purchase TikTok without the app’s algorithm.

In between his speeches at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Los Angeles, which he declined to answer additional questions about, Mnuchin said the proposal to buy the app is still being worked on, but wouldn’t say when it would be submitted.

ByteDance will not give up the service despite the new law in the U.S. Beijing officials are against any forced sale, and it would be necessary to win the support of China.

The algorithm, which involves millions of lines of software code developed by thousands of engineers over many years, cannot be easily transferred to the U.S., even if China did allow it, TikTok’s challenge states.

It’s difficult to determine why the courts should invalidate a law with no public discussion of the risks.