TECH NEWS – Instead of selling TikTok, ByteDance is planning to sue the US government because they really don’t like the US cracking down on apps from “foreign adversaries”.

The BBC has reported that TikTok has called the law “an extraordinary intrusion on free speech” as the app is used by more than 170 million Americans. They say it is only a “speculative concern” and are asking the DC Circuit Court of Appeals to put things back the way they were. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, while referring questions to the Justice Department, said it was not a ban but a divestiture.

ByteDance, the owner of TikTok (a Chinese company, we might add), does not want to sell the app, so there is a strong possibility that the app will no longer be available in the US. The Chinese government has called the American government a bully (oh, how ironic!) and would oppose a sale, and since every company has to have a Chinese Communist Party person in it, there is probably no chance of TikTok being sold.

The Protecting Americans From Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, signed into law by US President Joe Biden on April 23 (and passed by the Senate, the upper house of the bicameral legislature, on April 22), is considered dangerous because Chinese authorities can force ByteDance to hand over user data at any time. And it’s not just the US that has some kind of ban on the app. In addition to several US states, many European countries and Canada have banned the use of TikTok on government devices, India has a complete ban, and Australia is considering a ban.

Who knows what the outcome of the lawsuit will be, as freedom of speech is central to American democracy, and voices from both the left and right of the political spectrum are being heard protesting the potential “ban” on TikTok. Whatever happens, the law could bring other changes beyond making the app inaccessible.

Source: PCGamer, BBC