What is TikTok’s U.S. court case all about?

CGTN Europe

Lawyers for TikTok and its parent company ByteDance are facing down the U.S. Justice Department in a Washington DC courtroom. But what’s the court case all about – and what happens next?   From the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, CGTN’s John Terrett answers your questions.

Transcript

00:00The truth of the matter is that ByteDance and TikTok have a point.

00:03The ban on TikTok, signed into law in April by President Biden,

00:06and due to come into effect in early 2025, is technically an infringement of the U.S. Constitution,

00:13in particular the First Amendment, the right to free speech.

00:16But the trouble is, in this country, national security issues override almost everything else.

00:21And so it was that ByteDance and TikTok lawyers, together with a handful of U.S.-based TikTok

00:26creators, appeared at the Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., to try and get the ban stopped.

00:31They've asked for a decision by December so that, if needs be,

00:35the case can go to the U.S. Supreme Court, also in Washington, D.C.

00:39In the meantime, there are plenty of Wall Street-based entrepreneurs

00:44who are eyeing TikTok rather hungrily.

00:46They'd like to buy it and get access to its 170 million users around the United States alone.

00:52ByteDance in Beijing says we're not hanging out the for sale sign any time soon.

Category

Transcript

Recommended