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“At the stage when the bill is signed [by President Joe Biden]”We will take to the courts to file a legal challenge,” TikTok's head of public policy for the Americas wrote in a memo to employees on Saturday.
CNN
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TikTok will mount a court challenge if Congress passes legislation paving the way for a nationwide ban on the app, a senior executive told staff in an internal memo obtained by CNN.
On Saturday, the House of Representatives approved a foreign aid package Contains language That could lead to a TikTok ban — and the Senate could approve the bill within days, Michael Beckerman, TikTok's head of public policy for the Americas, warned employees in a memo he sent the same day.
“At the stage when the bill is signed [by President Joe Biden]“We will be moving to the courts to file a legal challenge,” Beckerman wrote to staff, calling the legislation “an unprecedented deal reached between a Republican Speaker of the House.” [Mike Johnson] And President Biden.”
“This is the beginning, not the end of this long process,” Beckerman added. He invited staff to an internal town hall scheduled for Wednesday “to get additional context.”
The memo was previously reported by The Information. A TikTok spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The legislation calls for ByteDance, TikTok's Chinese parent company, to be forced to sell the app within 270 days, otherwise it would be illegal for US app stores to offer TikTok for downloads. The legislation would also allow Biden to extend that deadline for another 90 days if he determines there is progress toward a sale.
In a nod to its legal strategy, TikTok has already publicly opposed the bill as a violation of its users' First Amendment rights. By contrast, supporters of the legislation said it was a necessary measure To protect Americans' personal data They backed away from describing it as a comprehensive ban.
Some First Amendment legal experts have suggested using TikTok It could be a casenoting that courts tend to consider the ultimate effects of the challenged laws on Americans' speech and not just on their stated intentions.
