This upcoming week, a court will listen to and consider arguments on whether the United States government can ban TikTok from the country, basing its judgment on highly confidential evidence that hasn’t yet been viewed by the company.
TikTok’s day in court is set, and on September 16th, the District of Columbia will hear the arguments in the case of TikTok v. Garland. The United States government position is simple. Namely, TikTok is a clear threat to national security, and thus, it will look into banning the platform in the country.
Interestingly enough, the government has not revealed why TikTok is a national security threat because it says doing so would be a threat in itself.
Experts suggest this strategy might be inefficient, as using classified evidence in a First Amendment case might create serious concerns for judges, especially considering TikTok is one of the leading free speech platforms in the country.
The court case against TikTok
This discussion took off when a law was signed into motion by President Joe Biden in April. The law mandates that TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, convert into a non-Chinese company. If it fails to do so, the app will be banned in the United States unless the President allows for a special period of time to work out a deal.
TikTok’s position was firm. The social media platform stated that the law would unconstitutionally force a shutdown of the app in the United States and its territories, which would be an unprecedented show of singling it out.
On July 28th, the United States government mounted its defense by making several declarations on the risks TikTok presents to the US. These claims were based upon pages of redacted classified material, but the Department of Justice insisted that they were not trying to “litigate in secret.”
The material used by the DOJ is so serious and classified that only the panel of judges may view it.
Despite most of the content being unknown, the documents suggest US user data may be compromised
Due to the classified nature of the documents, it is impossible to know what the exact threat is. However, those who have seen the redacted sections suggest that the Chinese government could make ByteDance hand over the data of US users of TikTok.
The same documents suggest the Chinese government might also go as far as forcing TikTok to push specific content onto US users.
The United States government argues that the national security risks posed by TikTok are so serious that they override First Amendment claims. The Department of Justice also suggested that Congress decided to ban TikTok due to extensive information on the risks the app poses to US national security.
Perhaps the most relevant document that is public is a declaration made by Kevin Vorndran, who is an assistant director of the FBI’s counterintelligence division. Vorndran explained the possibility that TikTok may be a a hybrid commercial threat. This would imply that TikTok’s legitimate activities would effectively serve as a “front” for the Chinese government to access US user data.
It remains to be seen whether the social media platform will effectively mount a defense in a case that promises to change the landscape of social media in the United States.
