TikTok’s legal fight against a potential U.S. ban has escalated. 

In a recent court filing, the company argues that the law threatening to shutter its U.S. operations represents “the most sweeping speech restriction in the country’s history.”

The social media giant, facing a January 19, 2025, deadline to divest from its Chinese parent company ByteDance or cease U.S. operations, is set for oral arguments on September 16 before a federal appeals court in Washington. 

TikTok’s lawyers will ask the court to halt the law signed by President Biden in April.

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) defends the law on national security grounds, asserting that China could use the app to spread propaganda to 170 million American users and collect personal user information. 

Government lawyers argue that free speech protections should not extend to a “Chinese-controlled proprietary recommendation engine.”

TikTok counters that the government’s fears lack concrete evidence. 

“The government cites no evidence of this supposed Chinese control — and its contention is flatly wrong,” writes TikTok attorney Alex Berengaut in the filing.

The TikTok algorithm is a key point of contention in determining user content recommendations. 

While ByteDance owns the algorithm, TikTok claims the U.S. version is stored and overseen by Texas-based Oracle cloud servers, isolated under a firewall plan. The DOJ disputes this arrangement’s effectiveness.

The filing reveals new details about a nearly-reached agreement with the White House that ultimately collapsed. 

William Farrell, a TikTok executive overseeing data security, states he worked on 20 drafts of a national security agreement with top officials and expected final comments from the Biden administration. However, the feedback has yet to arrive, and subsequent meeting requests were denied.

TikTok maintains that fully divesting its U.S. operations is impractical and could potentially lead to competition between the app’s American and global versions. 

The company argues that this split “would guarantee commercial failure.”

As the legal battle intensifies, the DOJ has requested that key evidence be allowed into the case under seal due to its classified nature.