RICHMOND, Va. -- Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares is urging the Supreme Court to uphold a law that would essentially ban TikTok if the social media app does not make serious security changes soon.
Miyares released a statement on Friday saying he filed a 40-page amicus brief with the United States Supreme Court supporting the bipartisan "Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act," which became law in April of this year. The brief was co-led by Montana's Attorney General, and 20 other states signed in support of it.
The law gave TikTok about nine months to cut ties with its Chinese-owned parent company ByteDance, and if it didn't, a national ban would take effect Jan. 19.
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The company pushed back, saying the law infringed on its free speech and the free speech of its roughly 170 million users in America. According to CBS News, it also said breaking ties with ByteDance would be nearly impossible due to how the app was built.
But earlier this month, an appeals court in D.C. denied its request to overturn the law and delay its enforcement date.
Soon, the Supreme Court will hear opposing arguments on the ban.
"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," Miyares said in a statement. "Virginians deserve a government that stands firm in protecting their privacy and security. The Supreme Court now has the chance 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."
The law received bipartisan support.
Virginia Senator Mark Warner, who is the head of the Senate Intelligence Committee, has been outspoken about the security threat posed by the app, but clarified what lawmakers are working toward in a virtual meeting with reporters last Thursday.
"We don't want to get rid of TikTok, we just don't want the ownership to be in the hands of an adversary," Warner said. "Eighty percent of Republicans and Democrats in the House and Senate agreed."
On Friday, the same day Miyares filed the brief, President-elect Donald Trump's team asked for the Supreme Court for more time to resolve the matter through negotiations.
The push to ban TikTok has drawn criticism from users who say the platform has proven to be successful in building businesses and online communities.
"It's really just a great way to connect with even more people that we may not be able to connect to on another platform," said Taylor Scott, the founder of RVA Community Fridges.
Scott said making video content for the app has helped the nonprofit, focused on providing free food and resources to marginalized communities, grow.
"It is crazy the amount of people that have even come from our TikTok and they come to our in-person meetings, they come to cook days, we've even received masks from people in the community that aren't in Virginia, so it's like we have a community of our own on TikTok," Scott said.
Though Scott said she and other volunteers never considered themselves to be content creators for the app, they've been brainstorming how they might pivot to expand their reach if the ban goes into effect.
"It's a really great place for people to learn, and even people who you may not expect who are on the ground are on TikTok are using it as a search engine to get educated on things like mutual aid, like things we do, and it's a great way for people to find resources," Scott said. "So, please, reconsider your stance if you're not geared to keep it, because we really do have a lot of great people, resources, and just methods of connecting with others on TikTok."
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