Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares asked the U.S. Supreme Court to maintain the law requiring ByteDance, the Chinese parent company of the social media platform TikTok, to sell its American operations or face a ban in the country.
After Congress raised concerns about TikTok’s connections to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), President Joe Biden signed legislation in April that gave ByteDance until January 19, 2025, to sell its American operations. ByteDance sued to block the legislation, but the federal government obtained rulings allowing the law in place from lower courts, leading to the Supreme Court deciding to take the case on January 10, 2025.
Like other social media companies, Miyares said in the amicus brief filed last week, “TikTok aggressively acquires the personal data of its users.” Unlike its competitors, Miyares argued, “its parent company—ByteDance Ltd.—is a Chinese company subject to Chinese law that has admitted to using data gathered through TikTok to surveil Americans.”
Because of this ownership and the Chinese Communist Party’s close control over China’s economy, Miyares wrote, “TikTok is a valuable tool for conducting corporate and international espionage, and it may allow the Chinese Communist Party to track the real-time locations of public officials, journalists, and other individuals adverse to the Chinese Communist Party’s interests.”
Miyares raised similar concerns about CCP surveillance in a press release on Friday.
“Allowing TikTok to operate in the United States without severing its ties to the Chinese Communist Party exposes Americans to the undeniable risks of having their data accessed and exploited by the Chinese Communist Party. Virginians deserve a government that stands firm in protecting their privacy and security,” said the attorney general. Miyares said the lawsuit represents a “chance” for the Supreme Court “to affirm Congress’s authority to protect Americans from foreign threats while ensuring that the First Amendment doesn’t become a tool to defend foreign adversaries’ exploitative practices.”
Miyares’ statement was submitted to the Supreme Court the same day President-elect Donald Trump submitted a brief asking the court to pause the law without ruling on its merits. Instead, Trump asked the high court to allow him to negotiate with ByteDance to reach a reasonable solution.
“President Trump takes no position on the merits of the dispute,” Trump’s attorneys wrote in his brief. “Instead, he urges the Court to stay the statute’s effective date to allow his incoming Administration to pursue a negotiated resolution that could prevent a nationwide shutdown of TikTok, thus preserving the First Amendment rights of tens of millions of Americans, while also addressing the government’s national security concerns.”
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Pennsylvania Daily Star and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Jason Miyares” by Jason Miyares.
