United States of America: Filed lawsuit challenging constitutionality of Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act including additional arguments (TikTok v US Attorney General)

On 15 August 2024, ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, expanded its arguments in the lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act at the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. TikTok initiated this legal action, arguing that the Act infringes upon the First Amendment's protection of freedom of expression, as well as the foundational principles of fairness and equal treatment under the Bill of Attainder Clause and the Fifth Amendment. TikTok contends that the Act wrongly classifies its content curation as "the speech of a foreigner" and thus is not protected by the US Constitution. The Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act makes the distribution, maintenance, updating, or facilitation of a foreign adversary-controlled application in the United States unlawful. The Act defines the term "foreign adversary controlled application" as a website, desktop application, mobile application, or augmented or immersive technology application that is operated directly or indirectly by ByteDance Ltd or TikTok. Specifically, the Act prohibits providing services to distribute, maintain, or update such foreign adversary-controlled application (including any source code) by means of a marketplace or online mobile application store and providing internet hosting services to enable the distribution, maintenance, or updating of such foreign adversary-controlled application. TikTok contends that the Department of Justice misrepresented the app's connections to China and that its content recommendation engine and user data are securely stored in the US on Oracle cloud servers, with content moderation decisions made domestically. The Justice Department's assertions that TikTok would present a national security risk by potentially allowing the Chinese government access to American data and influence over content are disputed by the company.