TikTok’s Court Battle is Set Against a Larger Tech War

The latest TikTok trend? Taking the US government to court.

Last week, the massively popular short-form video app owned by Chinese company ByteDance kicked off its legal fight challenging the US government’s divest-or-ban law passed in April, calling it unconstitutional. Coincidentally, the massive case headed to trial just as US regulators launched major cannon fire in the broader fight against Big Tech.

Tik’d Off

ByteDance’s legal defense can be summarized in two words: free speech. By shutting down the app, TikTok argues the government is essentially violating the First Amendment rights of its 170 million US users. A concurrent case being argued by a group of American TikTok creators uses similar reasoning. The US government, represented by the Department of Justice, is saying that national security concerns should take priority due to the risk that, one day, the Chinese government might tap the massive amount of data on US users vacuumed up by ByteDance.

But TikTok is no longer the only company in the government’s crosshairs over data collection practices. On Thursday, the Federal Trade Commission released a scathing report of the data collection practices of nine major tech companies, including Meta and Amazon. The agency alleges the platforms engaged in “vast surveillance” of users and non-users alike, which in turn led to “broad data sharing” with third parties with very little oversight. The report also noted the practice increases the “systemic risk from data breaches.” In other words: nothing you probably didn’t know already. It’s why many activists and critics have argued the TikTok ban is a mere half-measure for an industrywide illness that only comprehensive consumer data privacy reform can counter. Experts in cybersecurity tend to agree, and some say Big Tech isn’t even the biggest culprit of data-privacy malpractice:

• The TikTok conundrum is “more of a geopolitical problem than a data problem,” Yashin Manraj, CEO of cybersecurity firm Pvotal Technologies, told The Daily Upside. “If you look at the volume of data breaches, you see [it’s] not only on social media, but every business and even the government.”
• Manraj added that smaller companies are too often overlooked for invasive data collection or storage malpractice compared to major social media firms — highlighting the need for widespread reform. He added that he’s not defending the bigger platforms either: “I don’t use any social media myself.” 

Up Next: If the US government ultimately fails in the case, it may be due to the hypothetical nature of its argument. “Especially when the First Amendment is implicated, I think the courts are going to want to see more of a justification,” Matt Schettenhelm, a senior litigation analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, told The Verge. That could lead to Congress drafting and passing another, more specific bill. In the meantime, it’s business as usual. According to a recent Business Insider report, TikTok’s US team hasn’t slowed hiring or seen any increase in employee departures, while ad spending on the platform has only increased this year. Who can quit that addictive recommendations algorithm, anyway?