WASHINGTON, D.C.: TikTok has accused the Biden administration of engaging in “political demagoguery” during high-stakes negotiations to address concerns about its presence in the U.S.
This accusation was detailed in a letter sent to David Newman, a top official in the Justice Department’s national security division. It was disclosed in federal court as part of TikTok’s legal challenge against a potential U.S. ban.
The letter, sent before President Biden signed the potential ban into law, accompanies a legal brief supporting TikTok’s lawsuit. The Beijing-based parent company ByteDance is also a plaintiff in this lawsuit, which is anticipated to be one of the most significant legal battles in tech history.
The internal documents reveal negotiations between TikTok and the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), a secretive inter-agency panel that scrutinizes corporate deals over national security concerns, from January 2021 to August 2022. TikTok claimed these talks led to a 90-page draft security agreement, including robust safeguards around U.S. user data and a “kill switch” to suspend the platform if non-compliant.
However, TikTok’s attorneys stated that CFIUS “ceased any substantive negotiations” after the draft agreement was submitted in August 2022. The Justice Department, while not commenting directly on the case, defended the legislation, citing national security concerns.
“Alongside others in our intelligence community and in Congress, the Justice Department has consistently warned about the threat of autocratic nations that can weaponize technology – such as the apps and software that run on our phones to use against us,” the statement said. “This threat is compounded when those autocratic nations require companies under their control to turn over sensitive data to the government in secret.”
TikTok detailed additional meetings with government officials, including a March 2023 call arranged by Paul Rosen, the U.S. Treasury’s undersecretary for investment security. During this call, Rosen reportedly indicated that senior officials found the draft agreement insufficient and suggested a solution involving ByteDance divesting TikTok and moving the platform’s source code out of China.
TikTok’s lawsuit portrays divestment as technologically impossible, given the extensive code base needing to be separated from ByteDance. Following a report by the Wall Street Journal in March 2023 about CFIUS’s divestment ultimatum, TikTok’s attorneys engaged in further discussions with the Justice and Treasury departments, highlighting concerns over media leaks by government officials.
An in-person meeting in May 2023 focused on data safety measures and TikTok’s source code, with the last meeting with CFIUS occurring in September 2023. In the letter to Newman, TikTok’s attorneys stressed that CFIUS can address government concerns constructively if confidentiality and good-faith negotiations are maintained, rather than resorting to political tactics.
The legal brief revealed that the Justice Department allegedly provided a one-page document to Congress in March, a month before the federal bill was passed. TikTok’s attorneys argued that the document made claims about data collection and algorithmic influence without concrete allegations of misuse by the Chinese government.
