TikTok disputes U.S. claims on China ties in court appeal
The HinduTikTok told a federal appeals court on Thursday that the U.S. Department of Justice has mis-stated the social media app's ties to China, urging the court to overturn a law requiring China-based ByteDance to sell TikTok's U.S. assets or face a ban. TikTok said on Thursday it is undisputed that the app's content recommendation engine and user data are stored in the U.S. on cloud servers operated by Oracle and that content moderation decisions that affect U.S. users are made in the U.S. TikTok argued on Thursday that the law would strip the company of its free-speech rights, arguing against the Justice Department's claim that the short video app's content curation decisions are "the speech of a foreigner" and not protected by the U.S. Constitution. The law prohibits app stores like Apple, and Alphabet's Google, from offering TikTok and bars internet hosting services from supporting TikTok unless it is divested by ByteDance.