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Original caption: US Department of Commerce ban has been suspended and the US court bailed out TikTok again.
On November 13, according to the Global Times, the US Department of Commerce announced at 12 local time that it would not temporarily implement the TikTok ban. This ban, which was originally scheduled to go into effect on the same day, will ban Amazon and Alphabet from providing TikTok web hosting services. If these measures are implemented, it means that TikTok will not be able to continue operating in the United States.
What stopped the US Department of Commerce from enforcing the ban was a ruling issued in late October by a federal judge in Pennsylvania. On October 30 local time, US Federal Judge Wendy Beetlestone ordered the US Department of Commerce to delay the ban on providing data hosting services, content streaming services and other technical transactions for TikTok. in the U.S.
The lawsuit was started by the three creators of TikTok. Judge Bertelston stated in the ruling that the Commerce Department court order “would result in the shutdown of a creative platform used by 700 million people around the world. Among all TikTok users, there are more than 100 million people on the United States, including at least 50 million daily active users. “
The actions of the United States government pose a threat to the “powerful exchange of information materials” and therefore may exceed the government’s authority under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. Previously, the Trump administration has relied on this law to take action against TikTok.
On September 18, the US Department of Commerce announced that it will prohibit TikTok from downloading and updating app stores in the United States as of September 20 (this time will be extended to September 27), and it will be the 12th. of November. TikTok is prohibited from providing services in the United States.
On September 23, TikTok petitioned the Washington court for an injunction, hoping to stop US President Trump’s executive order against TikTok. TikTok said that if there is no court order, the US government court order will cause you irreparable harm.
Finally, on the same day the ban went into effect, Washington District Judge Carl Nichols issued a preliminary ban to prevent the U.S. Department of Commerce from ordering Apple and Google app stores to remove TikTok.
For TikTok, with the support of the US court, he is finally relieved, because he can at least continue to operate the product after the effective date of the ban stipulated by the US Department of Commerce. is the bottom line. On the night of the 12th, the United States government appealed against the court’s ruling, saying the ban was implemented to protect the data of American users, not to shut down information sharing.
CFIUS Challenge
At the same time, TikTok is also actively using legal means to uphold its rights. On November 10, TikTok filed a lawsuit in the District of Columbia Court of Appeals to suspend the presidential order issued by US President Trump to force Bytedance to divest the US TikTok business.
In response to this lawsuit, TikTok said in a statement that, despite disagreeing with the results of the previous evaluation of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), TikTok has been actively communicating with CFIUS for a while. year to resolve your “national security” concerns. However, CFIUS has yet to provide substantial comment on TikTok’s proposed comprehensive data privacy and security framework.
According to China Youth Daily, ByteDance acquired Musical.ly, a short video application for music in 2017. In 2019, CFIUS launched a post-mortem investigation of the transaction as affecting the “national security” of the United States. Trump’s mandatory divestment of the US TikTok business is also based on CFIUS recommendations.
TikTok believes that the CFIUS presidential order has an ultra vires problem because the order attempts to force the divestment of assets independently developed by ByteDance, which have nothing to do with the acquisition of Musical.ly.
According to the information published in the indictment, there are only 6 former Musical.ly employees in the US who are still working on TikTok or ByteDance; Of the 98 million monthly active users of TikTok in the US, only 3.2 million opened Musical.ly accounts prior to the transaction. Therefore, CFIUS forcing TikTok to divest assets other than these parts is serious ultra vires.
TikTok also stated in the indictment that after the US government shelved preliminary agreements reached with Oracle and Wal-Mart, TikTok had submitted a new US-based plan of operations. In accordance with this plan, TikTok plans to outsource US user data and content review services to a newly established US agency operating company, with the remainder of the business continuing to be operated by TikTok.
TikTok believes that this generational operating plan can resolve all US government concerns regarding the security of user data and platform content, but was rejected by the US TikTok stated that CFIUS It did not consider TikTok’s alternatives, nor did it consider or explain why the relevant risk reduction measures could not alleviate its “national security” concerns and violated TikTok’s legitimate rights and interests.
Focus on the European market
Although the US destination of TikTok is still up in the air, this has not affected the expansion of TikTok in other foreign markets.
Earlier, a TikTok spokesperson said: “To support rapid global growth, we plan to continue to expand TikTok’s global team of engineers over the next three years, including approximately 3,000 engineers in Canada, Europe, Singapore and the United States.”
TikTok is reported to be operated primarily by the Bytedance International team. There are currently around 1,000 engineers working for TikTok, and nearly half of them are in Mountain View, California.
In September this year, Rich Waterworth, general manager of TikTok’s European business, revealed that at present, the number of European monthly active users of TikTok has exceeded 100 million. To better serve the local market, TikTok will continue to expand its team in Europe. Scale and expand team capabilities.
Rich Waterworth presented that TikTok will continue to expand the European team. Today, TikTok has more than 1,600 employees in Europe. Among them, there are around 1,300 employees in the UK and Ireland alone. His responsibilities include brands, creator communities, merchandising, music, products, privacy, policy, and security.
Additionally, for European content creators, TikTok also launched the European Creators Fund, which plans to provide € 250 million over the next three years to help professionalize TikTok content creators. Currently, more than 40% of European TikTok creators have joined the program.
The reporter learned from the Irish Investment Development Agency that TikTok currently has almost 900 employees in Dublin. At least 200 new positions are expected to be added in the next three months. By January 2021, the total number of TikTok employees in Ireland will exceed 1,100 people. One of the key functions is the European Data Protection and Privacy Team.
In early 2020, TikTok established the Trust and Safety Hub for EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) in Dublin, Ireland, and became one of three global regional hubs, including the United States and Singapore.
Additionally, TikTok plans to invest € 420 million to build a data center in Ireland by 2022 and create hundreds of new jobs. After the official operation, Ireland will become the location for European TikTok user data.
(Author: Poplar)
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