Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. threatened to challenge a potential ban on TikTok on Friday, as efforts to block the video app in the US moved closer to reality earlier this week.
“I will be filing a lawsuit challenging the TikTok ban on constitutional grounds,” Kennedy wrote on social media platform. “Make no mistake – the TikTok ban is not about China collecting your data. This is a smokescreen.”
“Intelligence agencies in many countries, especially ours, are collecting data from everywhere all the time,” he added.
His comments came just days after President Biden signed a $95 billion national security package that includes language to ban TikTok in the U.S. if the app’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, doesn’t sell the app. ByteDance officials have said they have no intention of selling the app despite a possible ban.
“Reports in foreign media that ByteDance is exploring the sale of TikTok are false,” the company said in a statement, adding that it “has no plans to sell TikTok.”
A TikTok spokesperson also said in a statement that the law is “unconstitutional” and that they “will challenge it in court.”
Kennedy echoed the sentiment, arguing that China doesn’t own the majority of TikTok. He added that the company already agreed to put its data behind a US firewall, but “the Biden administration rejected the agreement.”
“Congress and the administration do not understand that TikTok is an entrepreneurial platform for thousands of young Americans,” he wrote. “They want to screw them just so they can pretend to be tough on China.”
“The TikTok ban is yet another example of how neither political party has any qualms about sacrificing your freedoms, rights and choices when it serves their political interests,” Kennedy said.
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