By Ashlee Banks
Special to the AFRO
TikTok is suing the Biden-Harris administration over a new law that is on track to ban the app next year.
U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif. told the AFRO “TikTok has become a place for activists and organizers to make their voices heard, especially when it comes to speaking up for the human rights of Palestinians.”
The Democratic lawmaker added that “A TikTok ban would hurt free speech as well as small business owners who depend on the app for their livelihoods.”
On May 7, TikTok and ByteDance, the app’s Chinese parent company, filed a lawsuit with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit citing that a potential ban of the app would violate the First Amendment rights of millions of Americans who use TikTok.
Last month Congress passed a law demanding ByteDance divest from the social media platform and sell it to a company approved by the U.S. within the next nine months or be outlawed in the U.S. Lawmakers stated that since TikTok is owned by China it poses a national security threat to American TikTok users.
Shortly after the bill made its way through the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate, President Joe Biden signed it into law.
During a White House press briefing last month, U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters that the Biden-Harris administration is “focused” on “working through [the] divestment [of TikTok] in a way that is consistent with the intent of the law and consistent with the national security concerns that brought the law into force in the first place.”
Khanna told the AFRO that a ban on TikTok will harm Black and brown users who rely on the app to earn an income.
He added, “I voted against the bill because I don’t believe in censorship. It will now be up to the courts to decide if a ban is unconstitutional.”
Junior U.S. Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa. told the AFRO that he voted for the bill, however he disagrees with a ban.
“I could have banned it in my home [state] and I didn’t. So, I’m not trying to ban it for everybody,” said Fetterman.
He added “It needs to be made safer and I support that.”
U.S. Rep. Greg Casar, D-Texas told the AFRO that while he understands “the national security concerns” that some members of Congress and the Biden-Harris administration have regarding TikTok he believes the statute “may not reach its intended purposes.”
“We need better protections for people across all social media platforms,” said Casar.
The Texas lawmaker continued, “While I would like for TikTok to be owned by a company outside of China because I think that would provide more protection for its users, I’m not sure this solution is actually going to fix that problem.”