The Justice Department late Friday filed its response to TikTok's civil suit aimed at derailing a law that would force the app to be sold or face a U.S. ban.
TikTok's suit in a Washington federal court argues that the law violates First Amendment rights of free speech. The US response counters that the law addresses national security concerns, not speech, and that TikTok's Chinese parent company ByteDance is not able to claim First Amendment rights here. The filing details concerns that ByteDance could, and would, comply with Chinese government demands for data about US users or yield to pressure to censor or promote content on the platform, senior justice department officials said in a briefing.
"The goal of this law is to ensure that young people, old people and everyone in between is able to use the platform in a safe manner," a senior justice department official said. "And to use it in a way confident that their data is not ultimately going back to the Chinese government and what they're watching is not being directed by or censored by the Chinese government." The response argues that the law's focus on foreign ownership of TikTok takes it out of the realm of the First Amendment.
US intelligence agencies are concerned that China can "weaponize" mobile apps, justice department officials said. "It's clear that the Chinese government has for years been pursuing large, structured datasets of Americans through all sorts of manner, including malicious cyber activity; including efforts to buy that data from data brokers and others, and including efforts to build sophisticated AI models that can utilize that data," a senior justice department official said. TikTok has said the demanded divestiture is "simply not possible" -- and not on the timeline required.
The bill signed by President Joe Biden early this year set a mid-January 2025 deadline for TikTok to find a non-Chinese buyer or face a US ban. The White House can extend the deadline by 90 days. "For the first time in history, Congress has enacted a law that subjects a single, named speech platform to a permanent, nationwide ban, and bars every American from participating in a unique online community with more than one billion people worldwide," said the suit by TikTok and ByteDance.
- TikTok shutdown? - ByteDance has said it has no plans to sell TikTok, leaving the lawsuit, which will likely go to the US Supreme Court , as its only option to avoid a ban. "There is no question: the Act will force a shutdown of TikTok by January 19, 2025," the lawsuit said, "silencing (those) who use the platform to communicate in ways that cannot be replicated elsewhere." TikTok first found itself in the crosshairs of former president Donald Trump's administration, which tried unsuccessfully to ban it.
That effort got bogged down in the courts when a federal judge temporarily blocked Trump's attempt, saying the reasons for banning the app were likely overstated and that free speech rights were in jeopardy. The new effort signed by Biden was designed to overcome the same legal headaches, and some experts believe the US Supreme Court could be open to allowing national security considerations to outweigh free speech protection. "We view the statute as a game changer from the arguments that were in play back in 2020," a senior justice department official said.
There are serious doubts that any buyer could emerge to purchase TikTok even if ByteDance would agree to the request. Big tech's usual suspects, such as Facebook parent Meta or YouTube's Google, will likely be barred from snapping up TikTok over antitrust concerns, and others could not afford one of the world's most successful apps used by about 170 million people in the United States alone. US presidential candidate Donald Trump falsely accused election rival Kamala Harris of being an anti-Semite who plans to allow the murder of newborn babies, in a speech meant to rally religious supporters Friday that quickly went off the rails.
The vice president, who is married to a Jewish man, has gained ground on Trump in polling since she replaced Joe Biden on the top of the Democratic ticket just days ago. Former Republican president Trump dedicated much of his address at a religious convention in southern Florida to assailing Harris's record as a senator and as Biden's number two, but many of his attacks were smears untethered to reality. Explaining why 59-year-old Harris had skipped Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyau's speech to the US Congress on Wednesday to instead honor a prior commitment, Trump accused her, baselessly, of anti-Semitism.
"She doesn't like Jewish people. She doesn't like Israel. That's the way it is, and that's the way it's always going to be.
She's not going to change," he said. The remark -- coupled with his claim that Harris "is totally against the Jewish people" in North Carolina on Wednesday -- marked an escalation in Trump's incendiary rhetoric, days after his campaign said an attempt on his life had given him a focus on unity. The hour-long Friday speech, hosted by hard-right Turning Point Action, raised legitimate questions over Harris's previous statements on policing, immigration and the environment that placed her to the left of current Biden administration policy.
But it was marked by hyperbole and falsehood. - 'Execute the baby' - Trump -- a convicted felon who is fighting multiple further indictments -- suggested baselessly that the Justice Department and FBI were "rounding up" Christians and anti-abortion activists and throwing them in jail for their "religious beliefs." He also called Biden's decision to exit the election campaign a "coup" by Democrats and said America was a "laughing stock.
" But he saved his darkest vitriol for Harris, calling her a "bum" and a failed vice president who had rejected federal judges for being Catholic and would appoint "hardcore Marxists" to the Supreme Court . He also accused her falsely of wanting to force doctors to give chemical castration drugs to children and suggested she might cheat to win in November. "If Kamala Harris has her way, they will have a federal law for abortion, to rip the baby out of the womb in the eighth, ninth month and even after birth -- execute the baby after birth," he claimed, in perhaps his most egregious calumny.
78-year-old Trump, now the oldest major-party nominee in history, is scrambling to reorient an election against someone two decades his junior, having expected to face an 81-year-old incumbent Biden beset by concerns over infirmity. Just last week, the former reality TV star was in cruise control as he accepted a hero's welcome -- and the official presidential nomination -- at the Republican convention in Milwaukee. - Crowning glory - His crowning glory came a week after a gunman nearly killed him at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania -- an extraordinary incident that Trump vowed Friday to commemorate with "a big and beautiful" new rally in the town, although he did not give a date.
Seeking to become the first female president in US history, Harris is tasked with rapidly assembling a campaign against an opponent who has been in near permanent reelection mode since he became president in 2016. Trump's predecessor Barack Obama pledged support for Harris earlier Friday, as polls showed her closing the gap that Trump had built over Biden to make the race a statistical tie. A top California prosecutor and senator before being elected the country's first female and first Black and South Asian vice president, Harris has highlighted Trump's criminal conviction and what she said Thursday is a Republican attack on "hard-fought freedoms" in US society.
Democrats leapt on a Trump campaign announcement late Thursday that cast into doubt whether he will debate Harris. "It shows that he's afraid," Transport Secretary Pete Buttigieg, a major Harris campaign advocate, told MSNBC. "It shows that he knows that if the two of them are on a stage together, it's not going to end well for him.
" CONTINUE READING Show less An attorney for Justin Timberlake asked a judge to dismiss drunk driving charges against the US pop singer Friday, saying his client was "not intoxicated" when he was arrested last month. On June 18, the 43-year-old entertainer had been pulled over in the town of Sag Harbor, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) east of New York City, after police observed his BMW drive through a stop sign and struggle to stay within street lanes. Timberlake had been en route to a friend's house after getting dinner at a local hotel's restaurant.
Officers arrested him on suspicion of drunk driving. Timberlake, who is currently on tour in Europe, did not attend Friday's court hearing in New York. He was ordered to attend the next proceedings on August 2, though will be allowed to do so via videoconference.
Judge Carl Irace agreed to review a motion filed by Timberlake's attorney, Edward Burke, which sought to dismiss the case, alleging the complaint filed by the arresting officer was defective. "The police made a number of very significant errors in this case," Burke said in a statement after the hearing. "The most important fact to know about this case is that Justin was not intoxicated and should not have been arrested.
" The "Selfish" singer is currently on the European leg of his "The Forget Tomorrow World Tour" to promote his latest album, "Everything I Thought It Was." CONTINUE READING Show less All-conquering Chinese divers Chang Yani and Chen Yiwen bagged the first Olympic gold of their careers on Saturday with a superb victory in the women's synchronised three-meter springboard final. Chang and Chen have been unbeatable in global diving events in recent years, winning gold at three straight world championships in 2022, 2023 and 2024.
They extended that run of dominance into the Olympic arena on Saturday, romping to victory with a total of 337.68 points. That left them comfortably ahead of the American duo of Sarah Bacon and Kassidy Cook, who took silver with 314.
64pts. Britain's Yasmin Harper and Scarlett Mew Jensen won bronze with a final total of 302.28.
Chang and Chen's victory launched China's bid for a potential sweep of Olympic diving golds. Chinese divers won seven out of eight gold medals in Tokyo three years ago. The diving powerhouse has ruled the 3m springboard synchronised event since its introduction at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, winning gold on six out of seven occasions.
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