TikTok And ByteDance Sue The US Government For The Divestment Law

JAKARTA TikTok and ByteDance, its parent company, sued the US government for making divestment laws. This lawsuit was filed with the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia on Tuesday, May 7. When filing a lawsuit, TikTok and ByteDance said that the law passed by US President Joe Biden had violated the constitution. The reason is that the ban limits the rights of citizens, including freedom of expression. "For the first time in history, Congress has passed a law that prohibits one speech platform permanently and nationally scaled," the two companies said in their lawsuit letter, quoted by Reuters. TikTok and ByteDance said that the government does not yet have evidence that the Chinese government has taken and misused TikTok user data in the US. The divestment law is considered a baseless concern. "Even statements from each Member of Congress and the congress committee report only show concerns about the hypothetical possibility that TikTok could be misused in the future, without citing specific evidence," explained the lawsuit. The two companies, in particular TikTok, confirmed that divestment would not be possible. TikTok will not be separated from ByteDance, either commercially, technologically, or legally. Therefore, the government's efforts would be detrimental to its society. There is a strong reason why TikTok cannot separate from ByteDance. Apart from the claimed safe data management, TikTok must move millions of rows of software codes in ByteDance to new companies. This is difficult to do.

Therefore, TikTok cannot be separated from ByteDance. The TikTok app in the US will also have a separate experience from users of other countries if TikTok follows the divestment rules. The bad effects, the TikTok business could suffer losses. On the other hand, the government is indeed concerned about US user data managed by TikTok. They are afraid of being spyed on by the Chinese government through the application so that divestment rules are made and passed in just a few weeks. King Krishna Gomezthi, a Democratic Party official in the US House of Representatives (DPR), said that the divestment law is the best way to address the national security threat. According to him, it would be better if TikTok immediately separated from ByteDance. "(this) is the only way to overcome the national security threat posed by ByteDance's ownership of applications like TikTok," said Raja. Instead of continuing fraudulent tactics, it is time for ByteDance to start the divestment process."