TikTok has hired a powerful new voice to defend its position as it steps up its fight against a Congressional ban of the app.
The Chinese-owned video-sharing platform appears to be preparing for a drawn-out legal battle that could reach the Supreme Court after President Joe Biden signed a bill in April requiring it to be sold to a U.S. company within nine months.
Carl Szabo, a longtime NetChoice general counsel and policy expert, is leaving one of Washington, D.C.'s leading tech lobbying groups to join TikTok's government relations team as the company seeks support in court.
“This certainly indicates that the company is expecting a Supreme Court fight and is preparing for it given its poor performance. [so far] “The D.C. Circuit's decision brings this litigation to a final conclusion,” Joel Thayer, a tech policy lawyer and president of the Digital Progress Institute, told the Post.
Calls to ban TikTok were first raised by politicians concerned about data privacy and what information the app is sending about its users to the Chinese Communist Party and how that could be used.
“TikTok is still trying to deny the reality that it is prohibited by law passed by Congress, and is using unlimited funding from China to do whatever it can to get its way,” added Nathan Reimer, a former FCC policy adviser and CEO of Fixed Gear Strategies.
“Given that our parent company is primarily owned by global institutional investors and employees, including thousands in the U.S., the comments are completely absurd and completely false,” a TikTok spokesperson told The Washington Post.
NetChoice, a right-wing tech lobbying group that works with a range of tech companies including Amazon, Netflix and Meta, represented TikTok until shortly after the ban, at which point the group removed the social media giant from its representation list.
Szabo has been instrumental in fighting lawsuits challenging laws cracking down on tech companies, and earlier this year after California passed a law designed to protect young users, he warned that “lawsuits are coming.” Reportedly.
Szabo's departure was announced in a statement Thursday from NetChoice President Steve DelBianco: “We are deeply grateful to Carl for helping grow NetChoice from a two-person team into America's largest technology trade association over the past 14 years.
“Thanks to Carl's dedication to advancing our mission, NetChoice now has a best-in-class government relations team and renowned litigation center to advance our cases.”
Szabo did not respond to a request for comment from The Washington Post.
TikTok has appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, seeking to overturn a law that would either force it to divest from its Chinese parent company ByteDance or ban the app.
“For the first time in history, Congress has specifically targeted a specific American speaker and banned their speech and the speech of 170 million Americans,” TikTok lawyer Andrew Pincus argued.
The law is scheduled to go into effect on Jan. 19, 2025, the day before the presidential inauguration.
