Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an independent candidate for US president, plans to sue the US government for threatening to outlaw the 170 million members of the TikTok social media network.
This Monday, President Joe Biden signed a measure into law giving ByteDance, the parent firm of TikTok in China, 270 days to get out of the platform. If TikTok does not comply, app shops that cater to US consumers will not allow it to be available.
Kennedy thinks the threat is unlawful and that the Chinese government may be using TikoTok to get personal information about American individuals, but this is only a "smokescreen."
In a Friday message on X (formerly Twitter), he said that "intelligence agencies from lots of countries, especially ours, are harvesting your data from everywhere all the time."
The lawmaker went on, "US officials do not understand that TikTok is an entrepreneurial platform for thousands of American young people." "They only want to mess them over so they can act like they are tough on China."
There is talk that Biden and Donald Trump, the likely Republican opponent, are at odds with Kennedy's campaign. He has pushed American voters to reject the country's two major parties, arguing that they are essentially the same and that they serve large economic interests rather than the interests of the average person.
TikTok plans to contest the proposed prohibition on First Amendment grounds as well.
Shortly after Biden signed the law on Wednesday, Shou Zi Chew, the CEO of the multibillion-dollar platform, said in a video message that "the facts and the constitution are on our side and we expect to prevail again."
He was alluding to the 2020 US court overturning of Trump's effort to outlaw the Chinese-owned apps WeChat and TikTok.
Regarding the most recent campaign against TikTok, the Republican contender has also chastised the White House. "He is the one pushing it to close, and doing it to help his friends over at Facebook become richer and more dominant," Trump said in a Truth Social post on Monday.
The deadline that was provided to TikTok is scheduled to pass soon after November's presidential election. Numerous polls indicate that for many young American voters, the platform serves as their main news source, among other things. In an apparent effort to counteract disinformation, representatives from both political parties have been putting pressure on social media companies to implement stronger content control guidelines.
This Monday, President Joe Biden signed a measure into law giving ByteDance, the parent firm of TikTok in China, 270 days to get out of the platform. If TikTok does not comply, app shops that cater to US consumers will not allow it to be available.
Kennedy thinks the threat is unlawful and that the Chinese government may be using TikoTok to get personal information about American individuals, but this is only a "smokescreen."
In a Friday message on X (formerly Twitter), he said that "intelligence agencies from lots of countries, especially ours, are harvesting your data from everywhere all the time."
The lawmaker went on, "US officials do not understand that TikTok is an entrepreneurial platform for thousands of American young people." "They only want to mess them over so they can act like they are tough on China."
There is talk that Biden and Donald Trump, the likely Republican opponent, are at odds with Kennedy's campaign. He has pushed American voters to reject the country's two major parties, arguing that they are essentially the same and that they serve large economic interests rather than the interests of the average person.
TikTok plans to contest the proposed prohibition on First Amendment grounds as well.
Shortly after Biden signed the law on Wednesday, Shou Zi Chew, the CEO of the multibillion-dollar platform, said in a video message that "the facts and the constitution are on our side and we expect to prevail again."
He was alluding to the 2020 US court overturning of Trump's effort to outlaw the Chinese-owned apps WeChat and TikTok.
Regarding the most recent campaign against TikTok, the Republican contender has also chastised the White House. "He is the one pushing it to close, and doing it to help his friends over at Facebook become richer and more dominant," Trump said in a Truth Social post on Monday.
The deadline that was provided to TikTok is scheduled to pass soon after November's presidential election. Numerous polls indicate that for many young American voters, the platform serves as their main news source, among other things. In an apparent effort to counteract disinformation, representatives from both political parties have been putting pressure on social media companies to implement stronger content control guidelines.
