Over 50 US lawmakers and 21 states support DOJ in TikTok lawsuit

TikTok lawsuit DOJ support: On Friday, a coalition of 21 states and over 50 US lawmakers endorsed the Justice Department's stance in defending a law that mandates China-based ByteDance to divest its TikTok US assets by January 19 or face a ban.

"TikTok is a threat to national security and consumer privacy," asserted a court filing led by the attorneys general of Montana and Virginia. "Allowing TikTok to operate in the United States without severing its ties to the Chinese Communist Party exposes Americans to the risk of the Chinese Communist Party accessing and exploiting their data."

A separate filing by more than 50 lawmakers, headed by US Representative John Moolenaar, a Michigan Republican and chair of the House select China committee, and the panel's top Democrat, Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi, stated that the law "provides a clear, achievable path for affected companies to resolve the pressing and non-hypothetical national security threats posed by their current ownership structures."

TikTok, along with its parent company ByteDance and a group of TikTok creators, has initiated lawsuits to block the law that threatens to ban the app used by 170 million Americans.

The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia is set to hold oral arguments on the legal challenge on September 16, positioning TikTok's fate at a critical juncture during the final weeks of the 2024 presidential election.

The congressional filing was endorsed by House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, a Republican, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Republican Senator Marco Rubio, and Frank Pallone, the top Democrat on the Energy and Commerce Committee. "Congress acted not to punish ByteDance, but to protect national security," the lawmakers wrote.

TikTok responded, stating, "These filings ignore the fact that Congress passed the TikTok ban with no record supporting the government's claims. Moreover, these filings do nothing to change the fact that the Constitution is on our side as the TikTok ban would violate the First Amendment rights of 170 million Americans who use TikTok."

Motivated by concerns among US lawmakers that China could access data on Americans or spy on them via the app, the measure was passed overwhelmingly in the US Congress in April, just weeks after its introduction.

Last week, the Justice Department urged a US appeals court to dismiss legal challenges to the law, asserting that "the serious national-security threat posed by TikTok is real."

(With Reuters inputs.)