U.S. President Joe Biden signed a package of foreign aid bills on the 24th, including the mandatory divestiture of TikTok. Although Biden did not mention the bill that day, the White House said that TikTok could continue to operate for 270 days, and the Biden administration would move forward with the divestiture process in accordance with the bill. And Biden's campaign will continue to use TikTok. TikTok CEO Zhou Shouzi responded that he would go to court, emphasizing that the facts and the constitution are on TikTok's side.
White House: TikTok can still operate as usual for nine months
In the package of foreign aid bills signed by Biden on the 24th, TikTok is required to divest its parent company ByteDance within 270 days, otherwise it will be banned from the app store. However, after the 270-day expiration date, the president of the United States can still grant a grace period of 90 days.
US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan:
The terms of the bill are straightforward, TikTok will continue to operate as it is now until it is divested at the time you mentioned. Therefore, in implementing the bill, our focus is on the implementation of the bill, in accordance with the intent of the law, as well as the national security concerns that originally passed the law.
According to the bill, the TikTok ban could take effect as early as January 2025, but legal experts expect the ban to be extended due to TikTok's legal action. Javer, executive director of Columbia University's First Amendment Institute, argues that the forced divestiture of TikTok is unconstitutional and that the government should not restrict Americans from accessing information from abroad. Even if the Biden administration uses national security language to package the bill, it cannot be the exception, and foreign adversaries can still obtain sensitive information about Americans in other ways.
The Biden campaign, which entered TikTok in February, said they would still continue to use TikTok. In two months, Biden has amassed more than 300,000 followers, while Biden's Republican opponent, Trump, has not opened an account on TikTok. The upcoming U.S. presidential election could also affect the ban. Trump has already tried to use the ban on social media to remind young American voters to remember Biden's attempt to ban TikTok on Election Day.
Zhou Shouzi: Will challenge the injunction in court
In response to US President Joe Biden's official signing of a bill against TikTok, requiring the Chinese company ByteDance to sell the short video social platform TikTok, otherwise the relevant programs will be banned. TikTok CEO Zhou Shouzi described the incident as ironic, emphasizing that TikTok will not disappear and will challenge the injunction in court.
TikTok CEO Zhou Shouzi:
It's actually ironic because TikTok's free speech reflects the same American values that make the United States a beacon of freedom, and TikTok provides a powerful model for Americans to be seen and heard. Rest assured, we are not going anywhere, we are confident and will continue to fight for the rights of the masses in the courts, the facts and the Constitution are on our side, and we expect another victory.
Zhou also said that TikTok has invested billions of dollars to protect U.S. data security and protect the platform from outside influence and manipulation, stressing that in addition to continuing to challenge this unconstitutional ban, it will continue to invest and innovate, and will continue to work to ensure that the public can enjoy everything Tiktok has to offer safely and freely.
As for TikTok's new app TikTokLite, which has also been caught in the turmoil, it has decided to suspend its function of earning points for watching videos. The European Union said earlier that TikTokLite allows users to earn points when watching short videos, liking, following creators or inviting friends to join, which can then be exchanged for cash coupons or gift cards, arguing that the plan does not do a due diligence assessment of the possible risks, especially in terms of children's addiction and harm to users' mental health. TikTok said at the time that the rewards program was only available to users over the age of 18, and there were daily restrictions on watching short videos, expressing disappointment with the EU's view.
U.S. lawyer analysis: TikTok said it would file a lawsuit, will it win?
In 2023, Montana passed a law prohibiting TikTok from operating in the state, and TikTok and some content creators filed separate lawsuits over it, saying that the state's bill violated the right to free speech under the U.S. Constitution. The judge who finally heard the case halted the bill before the injunction took effect. Can TikTok avoid being banned again this time? How is the situation different from last year's case in Montana? Please see the analysis of Mr. Zhang Jun, an American lawyer——
The biggest difference is that this time it was the federal Congress that passed the bill, the federal president signed it, and last time it was Montana a state act. From this point of view, the biggest difference is that this time it has become national, and the significance of the lawsuit will be more far-reaching and broader. Therefore, in this lawsuit, Zhou Shouzi and some other legal experts also mentioned that freedom of speech should still be emphasized.
Because freedom of speech in the United States is so important, it is the first of more than 20 constitutional amendments in the United States, and the Supreme Court of the United States has many precedents on freedom of speech in history. A lot of jurisprudence is basically in favor of freedom of expression, unless there is a very important government reason for the government, and many cases show that the courts can't pass the hurdle just because the government says it's national security. When Congress enacts, although it also has to conduct some hearings and collect evidence, it has much lower requirements for evidence than the courts.
In other words, if TikTok files a lawsuit against the U.S. government and this law, the court will require the government to come up with a lot of evidence to prove that national security is involved. If the U.S. government can produce a lot of evidence, maybe TikTok will lose the case, but if it can't produce evidence, many Supreme Court precedents will give more legal attention and legal protection to freedom of speech, and the government cannot be allowed to simply say that it is due to national security. Therefore, I believe that in the future, the litigation between the two sides will go back and forth in this part.
Source: Phoenix Satellite TV Information Channel
Editor: Mu Mu