Washington DC, United States

TikTok and its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, on Thursday (June 20) appealed to a US court to overturn a law that threatens to ban the popular video app in the United States starting January 19. The company in its filing has claimed that the US government reportedly ceased serious settlement negotiations with ByteDance in 2022. 

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Challenging the American government's "unconstitutional singling out of TikTok," the company said that the divestiture being forced upon it by a law enacted in April by President Joe Biden was "not possible technologically, commercially, or legally". 

Meanwhile, as per a Bloomberg News report, the US Department of Justice is preparing to file a consumer protection lawsuit against TikTok over children's privacy violations.

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Divestiture not feasible, says ByteDance

US has demanded that ByteDance must divest TikTok's US assets or face a nationwide ban, However, ByteDance argues that such divestiture is not feasible and said that the law was a "radical departure from this country’s tradition of championing an open Internet."

The company also argues that the potential ban "sets a dangerous precedent, allowing the political branches to target a disfavoured speech platform and force it to sell or be shut down."

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TikTok's future in the US, as per a Reuters report, rests on a September 16 hearing when the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia will hear arguments on lawsuits filed by TikTok and ByteDance along with TikTok users.

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DOJ case

As per Bloomberg, the DOJ will sue TikTok later this year on behalf of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

Instead of pursuing claims that the application deceived US consumers by hiding that China-based employees of its parent company would have access to their personal and financial information, the lawsuit would charge the company with children's privacy violations.

Why does the US want to ban TikTok?

The law and the looming ban are driven by worries among US lawmakers that the app by China-based company ByteDance can be used by Beijing to spy on Americans or steal their data.

However, the company maintains that this law violates free speech rights and unfairly singles out TikTok while ignoring "many applications with substantial operations in China that collect large amounts of US user data, as well as the many US companies that develop software and employ engineers in China."

In its latest filing, the company argues that it was clear that TikTok posed no imminent national security risks because the law "allows TikTok to continue operating through the rest of this year -- including during an election that the very president who signed the bill says is existential for our democracy."

(With inputs from agencies)