Written by David Shepardson
(Reuters) – The Justice Department late on Friday asked a U.S. appeals court to reject legal challenges requiring China's ByteDance to divest TikTok's U.S. assets by Jan. 19 or face a ban.
“The serious national security threat posed by TikTok is real,” the department said. “TikTok provides the Chinese government with the means to undermine US national security in two primary ways: data collection and manipulation of classified content.”
TikTok and its parent company ByteDance and a group of TikTok creators have filed to block the law that would ban the app used by 170 million Americans.
The DOJ's filing provides extensive national security information regarding ByteDance's ownership of TikTok.
“China's long-term geopolitical strategy includes developing and prioritizing assets that it can use at the right times,” the government said.
“The United States does not need to wait until its foreign adversary takes some destructive action before responding to such a threat.”
The government is also filing a confidential court document that will detail additional security concerns about ByteDance's ownership of TikTok and announcements from the FBI, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Justice Department's National Security Agency.
The Department of Justice argues that TikTok under Chinese ownership poses a significant national security risk to Americans because of its access to personal data of Americans and will argue that China can falsify the information Americans use on TikTok.
TikTok, which has repeatedly denied that it ever shares data on users in the US and China, was not immediately available for comment.
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 China-based ownership eliminated on national security grounds, but not the TikTok ban.
The department rejects all arguments raised by TikTok, including that the law violates the First Amendment free speech rights of Americans who use the short video app, saying the law aims to address national security issues, not speech and is aimed at China's ability. exploiting TikTok to access sensitive personal information of Americans.
The government added that TikTok's efforts to protect US users' data are inadequate.
The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia will hold oral arguments on the legal challenge on September 16, putting TikTok's fate in the middle of the final weeks of the 2024 presidential election.
Republican President Donald Trump joined TikTok and told an interviewer in June that he would not even support a ban on TikTok. Vice President Kamala Harris, who is running for president, joined TikTok this week.
The law prevents app stores like Apple (NASDAQ: ) and Alphabet (NASDAQ: )'s Google from offering TikTok and prevents internet hosting services from supporting TikTok unless ByteDance releases it.
Driven by concerns among US lawmakers that China could access Americans' data or spy on the app, the measure was overwhelmingly passed in the US Congress just weeks after it was introduced.
