Top TikTok Lawyer Laughed About Possible US Ban: Report

• A top rated TikTok attorney was reportedly asked what the firm would do if the application was banned in the US.
• The lawyer laughed and dismissed the likelihood, according to The Verge’s Command Line publication.
• Various nations around the world banned TikTok on govt equipment, and India has an outright ban on the app.

TikTok’s major attorney had an exciting reaction to an employee’s concern requested throughout a recent all-hands meeting, The Verge’s Alex Heath studies.

At a new meeting with TikTok’s US workers, Erich Anderson, one particular of the company’s lawyers heading up conversations with the US authorities, was requested about any contingency program if the app had been banned in the US, Heath wrote on Thursday for The Verge’s Command Line newsletter. Anderson responded to the problem with laughter and “outright dismissed the possibility of a ban,” according to the report.

The law firm, who was appointed as TikTok’s worldwide general counsel in 2020, reportedly then claimed the business was completely ready to lawfully problem a ban if it arrived to that. But The Verge studies that Anderson failed to discuss no matter whether ByteDance would promote TikTok’s US organization — an concept that the Biden administration has reportedly pushed as the only different to a ban.

TikTok, ByteDance, and Anderson did not respond to Insider’s requests for remark in advance of publication.

Anderson’s claimed remarks come two weeks soon after TikTok’s CEO Shou Zi Chew was grilled during a Congressional hearing more than stability fears with the app. Politicians often cut Chew’s responses shorter and continuously pushed for a overall ban or a pressured sale of the US application from its China-primarily based father or mother organization, ByteDance, citing details safety problems. Subsequent the hearing, the politicians ended up later on mocked by a lot of on the system for a perceived deficiency of technological know-how.

Some nations have now imposed partial or total bans against the app. Australia a short while ago moved to ban TikTok on federal government devices, a shift that the United States, Canada, France, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom previously produced. India has experienced an outright ban on TikTok in position considering the fact that 2020.

Continue to, industry experts have mentioned a whole TikTok ban in the US is the last doable choice for the US. As the Biden administration reportedly proceeds to weigh this decision, it is also considering the pitfalls of a ban — which include likely alienating young voters, professionals previously told Insider’s Paayal Zaveri.