Potential TikTok ban might take some time
Legal challenges likely to develop
A bill that would force a sale of TikTok by its Chinese owner, ByteDance — or ban it outright — was passed by the Senate on Tuesday and signed into law Wednesday by President Joe Biden.
Now the process is likely to get even more complicated.
Congress passed the measure citing national security concerns because of TikTok’s Chinese ties. Both lawmakers and security experts have said there are risks that the Chinese government could lean on ByteDance for access to sensitive data belonging to its 170 million U.S. users or to spread propaganda.
The law would allow TikTok to continue to operate in the United States if ByteDance sold it within 270 days, or about nine months, a time frame that the president could extend to a year.
The measure is likely to face legal challenges, as well as possible resistance from Beijing, which could block the sale or export of the technology. It’s also unclear who has the resources to buy TikTok, since it will carry a hefty price tag.
The issue could take months or even years to settle, during which the app would probably continue to function for U.S. consumers.
“It’s going to be a royal mess,” said Anupam Chander, a visiting scholar at the Institute for Rebooting Social Media at Harvard and an expert on the global regulation of new technologies.
TikTok pledged to challenge the law. “Rest assured, we aren’t going anywhere,” said its chief executive, Shou Chew, in a video posted to the platform. “We are confident and we will keep fighting for your rights in the courts.”
TikTok is likely to start by challenging the measure in the courts.
“I think that’s the one certainty: There will be litigation,” said Jeff Kosseff, an associate professor of cybersecurity law at the Naval Academy.
TikTok’s case will probably lean on the First Amendment, legal experts said. The company is expected to argue that a forced sale could violate its users’ free speech rights because a new owner could change the app’s content policies and reshape what users are able to freely share on the platform.
“Thankfully, we have a Constitution in this country, and people’s First Amendment rights are very important,” Michael Beckerman, TikTok’s vice president of public policy, said in an interview with a creator on the platform last week. “We’ll continue to fight for you and all the other users on TikTok.”
Other groups, like the American Civil Liberties Union, which has been a vocal opponent of the bill, may also join the legal fight. A spokeswoman for the ACLU said on Tuesday that the group was still weighing its role in potential litigation challenging the law.
The government will probably need to make a strong case that ByteDance’s ownership of TikTok makes it necessary to limit speech because of national security concerns, the legal experts said.
TikTok already has a strong record in similar First Amendment battles. When he was president, Donald Trump tried to force a sale or ban of the app in 2020, but federal judges blocked the effort because it would have had the effect of shutting down a “platform for expressive activity.”