TikTok's Struggles in America: A Battle on Slippery Ground

General news News Tech Tech News 08/17/2024

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TECH NEWS – ByteDance’s community platform may soon be unavailable in the US unless the Chinese tech company sells the platform to someone else, and they are not willing to do that…

A few months ago, we reported that TikTok, which is used by more than 150 million people in the US, was considered a national security risk. Authorities believe the platform is being used by the Chinese government to access sensitive data, and that is indeed a very real risk. If ByteDance sells the platform to a company, presumably American, by January 19, there will be no problem.

According to Reuters, TikTok now plans to appeal the court’s misjudgment of its relationship with China and is making efforts to overturn the decision. TikTok claims the lawsuit contains factual errors: it says the company is not a spy agency and does not allow China to access users’ data, potentially influencing consumers’ consumption patterns or jeopardizing national security. It details the content provider’s processes and how it handles U.S. users’ data. The former is created in the U.S. and the data is stored locally on Oracle servers. Hearings on the legal arguments will take place on September 16, dangerously close to the presidential election (which is in November).

TikTok on Thursday presented the law passed for the company as depriving the social media platform of its right to free speech and the right to curate and distribute content under the protection of the First Amendment. According to them, the logic is flawed because it can be interpreted to mean that US newspapers cannot republish articles from a foreign agency and impose restrictions on the curation and distribution of content simply because the content is not from the US. The law in question also prohibits app stores (Apple App Store, Google Play Store) from allowing app downloads and restricts Internet hosting providers from providing any support in the U.S. until potential security concerns are addressed. Despite TikTok’s claim in the lawsuit that it is not a spy agency and operates on local servers, we will not have a clearer picture until the day of the legal arguments.

So the platform is in an interesting position.

Source: WCCFTech, Reuters

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Angyal Anikó

Anikó, our news editor and communication manager, is more interested in the business side of the gaming industry. She worked at banks, and she has a vast knowledge of business life. Still, she likes puzzle and story-oriented games, like Sherlock Holmes: Crimes & Punishments, which is her favourite title. She also played The Sims 3, but after accidentally killing a whole sim family, swore not to play it again. (For our office address, email and phone number check out our IMPRESSUM)