Social media giant TikTok filed a federal lawsuit this week challenging a new law that would ban the app or force its Chinese parent-company to sell the social media platform.
With an estimated one billion users worldwide and 150 million in the U.S., TikTok is considered by some to be the most popular social media platform in the world — especially among teens and young adults.
The company has struggled to protect private user data from entities in China, and the platform has faced criticism for letting its algorithm serve users what some call a steady “diet of darkness” online.
As U.S. Congressman Bruce Westerman wrote in March,
Although TikTok executives claim that it does not share any data collected by the app, there are several Chinese laws in place that provide CCP [Chinese Communist Party] officials access to all user data collected by Chinese-owned tech companies, like TikTok. This means the CCP has access to sensitive data, like the location of every TikTok user worldwide, including the over 210 million Americans who have downloaded the app.
Likewise, Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin has voiced concerns over the fact that TikTok is subject to Chinese laws that “mandate secret cooperation with intelligence activities of the People’s Republic of China.”
In April, President Biden signed a bipartisan piece of legislation requiring TikTok’s Chinese parent-company, ByteDance, to divest itself of the platform by January 19, 2025. If ByteDance fails to sell TikTok, the law would ban TikTok in the United States.
TikTok’s federal lawsuit claims the law violates the U.S. Constitution and asks a federal court to block the law.
As we have said repeatedly, there is mounting evidence that — by design — social media platforms like TikTok may deliberately push objectionable content to kids and put users’ personal information at risk. With that in mind, it’s good to see policymakers taking action to rein in these tech giants.
Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.
