MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WIAT) -- Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, alongside 21 attorney generals, is asking the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to uphold the national TikTok ban.
The federal law will ban TikTok in the United States if Chinese-owned ByteDance, TikTok's parent company, doesn't sell its stake in the platform.
The coalition's brief states that TikTok has been considered a threat to national security and consumer privacy as "the company collects user data that is accessible to foreign adversaries [...] which creates privacy and security concerns."
The brief also urges the court to deny TikTok's petition as it is within Congress's power to act on matters of national security and foreign affairs.
“All users of TikTok must understand that every click, location, and recording is used as intelligence that we have ample reason to believe is available to the Chinese Communist Party. Americans asked for Congress to take action against this intrusion by a top foreign adversary, and Congress acted,” Attorney General Marshall said. “We are urging the courts to uphold the lower court’s decision and enforce this critical national security law.”
The attorney generals of Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee and Utah also joined the brief. To read the document in full, click here.