2024-09-20
15 分钟TikTok’s lawyers were in a U.S. Court of Appeals this week trying to push back against a law that requires the popular video app to sell its American subsidiary to a non-Chinese owner or be banished from app stores. Alan Rozenshtein, an associate professor at the University of Minnesota, and expert in lawfare, explains what’s at stake.
On September 16, a federal appeals court heard oral arguments in what could be a landmark case.
Case number 20 411 13, et al.
TikTok Inc.
And Bytedance Limited.
TikTok is challenging a new law that puts nothing less than the app's very survival in the crosshairs.
Good morning, your honor.
Thank you, and may it please the court.
The law before this court is unprecedented.
And its effect would be staggering.
The lawyers had gathered to address whether Congress could pass a law that would require Bytedance, TikTok's chinese parent, to sell the popular app to a non chinese company.
The Justice Department says TikTok's connection to China to a hostile foreign power justifies the move.
Specifically, they said they worry that sensitive personal data on Americans, like their location, could end up in the hands of the chinese government.
Or as we reported in Tuesdays episode, that the Chinese Communist Party could use the apps algorithm to influence politics or peddle misinformation to Americans.
I think the idea that chinese influence over TikTok through ByteDance or through whatever, I think we can say that that is not at all a speculative risk.
I think that's pretty obvious.
This is Alan Rosenstein.
He's a law professor at the University of Minnesota, has been following the TikTok case closely.
I think that we don't have perfect options here either.
You know, we're either accepting a huge national security risk or on the other hand, we are again interfering in people's expressive activities.
But I think that, you know, sometimes you have to choose between two bad options.