BanTok

TikTok danced into federal court Monday, challenging the U.S.’s divest-or-ban law as unconstitutional. 

Prompted by national security concerns over TikTok’s China-based parent company, ByteDance, the legislation was fast-tracked through Congress with bipartisan support and signed by President Biden earlier this year. 

The law would give TikTok the boot nationwide unless ByteDance sells to a non-Chinese buyer by January 19, 2025, and would allow the president to limit other apps with ties to foreign adversaries.

The big question: Do the security risks outweigh free speech? TikTok says no, arguing that the ban would violate First Amendment rights for its whopping 170M U.S. users and that transparency-focused remedies should come first. The DOJ insists the app contains data from millions of Americans that is “extremely valuable to a foreign adversary trying to compromise” the U.S.

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Verse to consider when you’re reevaluating your use of social media…“Blessed is the one who does not condemn himself by what he approves. But whoever doubts stands condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith, and everything that is not from faith is sin.”
Romans 14:22-23 (CSB) (read full passage)