TikTok asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit this week to postpone the enforcement of a law that could ban the social media platform from America.
The Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act (the Act) gives TikTok until January 19 to cut ties with its Chinese parent company, ByteDance. The law, which President Biden signed in April, addresses years-long, bipartisan concerns that the Chinese government uses TikTok to gather data on American citizens.
TikTok spent months trying to get the law thrown out as a free speech violation. The D.C. Circuit effectively dashed those hopes last week after unanimously finding the Act constitutional.
“The First Amendment exists to protect free speech in the United States,” Senior Circuit Judge Douglas Ginsburg wrote in the Court’s majority opinion, continuing:
Government laws that infringe on free speech rights must 1) serve a compelling government interest and 2) be narrowly tailored to serve that purpose. Though the Court acknowledged a ban would infringe on the free expression of some 170 million users, it concluded the Act met this two-pronged test.
In his concurring opinion, Judge Sri Srinivasan wrote:
As Srinivasan notes, the Court’s opinion reflects a preponderance of evidence that TikTok funnels important user data to one of America’s greatest foreign adversaries.
Assistant Director of National Intelligence Casey Blackburn calls China “the most active, persistent cyber espionage threat to the U.S. government, private-sector and critical networks.” Part of these threats include China’s “extensive, years-long efforts to accumulate structured datasets, in particular on U.S. persons, to support its intelligence and counterintelligence operations.”
Chinese law requires all Chinese-owned companies — including ByteDance — to make their data available to the government. That means China has access to the names, ages, emails, phone numbers and, often, contact lists U.S. users divulge to TikTok when they sign up.
The PRC can also access TikTok’s users’ in-app messages, in-app usage patterns, IP addresses, keystroke patterns, browsing and search history, location data and biometric identifiers like face- and voiceprints—all metrics TikTok tracks, according to its “privacy policy.”
TikTok claims it retains American data on local servers the Chinese government can’t access. Public reporting and evidence presented by the Department of Justice suggest otherwise.
Despite TikTok’s assurances, audio recordings of ByteDance meetings indicate the company “retained considerable control and influence” over U.S. users’ data.
The Congressional investigative committee that recommended passing the Act found:
“Public reporting suggested that TikTok had stored sensitive information about U.S. persons (including ‘Social Security numbers and tax identifications’) on servers in China;
“TikTok’s ‘China-based employees’ had ‘repeatedly accessed non-public data about U.S. TikTok users.’
“ByteDance employees had ‘accessed TikTok user data and IP addresses to monitor the physical locations of specific U.S. citizens.”
This is not the first time TikTok has been accused of mishandling user data. In October, thirteen states and the District of Columbia filed lawsuits accusing TikTok, in part, of illegally collecting children’s data.
“TikTok actively collects and monetizes data on users under 13 years old, in violation of Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), and does so without parental consent,” New York Attorney General Leticia James wrote in a press release detailing the allegations.
Evidence uncovered in these cases suggest a significant portion of TikTok’s American users are minors. An internal study from TikTok found as many as 95% of American smartphone users under 17 years old use the app. An estimated 35% of TikTok’s American ad revenue comes from children and teens.
TikTok hopes the D.C. Circuit will grant it enough time to appeal to the Supreme Court — or the beneficence of the incoming Trump administration — before January 19.
Though President Trump was the first to openly acknowledge the risk TikTok posed to national security in 2019, some allies predict he will help facilitate a deal between TikTok and a new American owner. The Chinese government says it will oppose such a deal, preventing ByteDance from releasing TikTok and forbidding the sale of its money-making algorithm.
The Department of Justice officially opposed TikTok’s petition for a preliminary injunction on Wednesday. As of December 13, the Court has not yet responded.
Parents might not be able to control whether TikTok will be banned in America, but you can take steps to keep your kids safe online. To learn more about social media and its effects on children, check out the articles below.
Additional Articles and Resources
“Plugged In Parent’s Guide to Today’s Technology” equips parents to navigate the ever-shifting tech realm.
TikTok Dangerous for Minors — Leaked Docs Show Company Refuses to Protect Kids
Teen Boys Falling Prey to Financial Sextortion — Here’s What Parents Can Do
Instagram’s Sextortion Safety Measures — Too Little, Too Late?
Kid’s Online Safety Act — What It Is and Why It’s a Big Deal
Instagram Content Restrictions Don’t Work, Tests Show
Zuckerberg Implicated in Meta’s Failures to Protect Children
Surgeon General Recommends Warning on Social Media Platforms
‘The Dirty Dozen List’ — Corporations Enable and Profit from Sexual Exploitation
Four Ways to Protect Your Kids from Bad Tech, From Social Psychologist Jonathan Haidt
Parent-Run Groups Help Stop Childhood Smartphone Use
Survey Finds Teens Use Social Media More Than Four Hours Per Day — Here’s What Parents Can Do
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