Ark. Claims Raise ‘Core Federal Concerns,’ Says TikTok’s Remand Opposition

Western Arkansas in El Dorado. Griffin alleges TikTok is violating the Arkansas Deceptive Trade Practices Act by duping Arkansas residents about the privacy and data risks of using the social media platform. However the court views the state’s claims at the current stage of the case, those claims “implicate core federal concerns,” and the state shouldn’t be allowed “to ignore them to remain in state court,” it said. “When boiled down to its essence,” the case involves the state’s “extraordinary attempt” to regulate “sensitive issues of national security and foreign affairs,” it said. Those issues “at this very moment” are under “active consideration” by the federal government, it said. Federal question jurisdiction exists and the state’s motion to remand should be denied, it said. In its remand motion, the state argues the court lacks jurisdiction because the case doesn’t require the resolution of any federal issue, said TikTok. But the state concedes that to succeed on its claims, “it must establish that TikTok user data may be accessed and exploited by a hostile foreign government,” it said. The question of whether China is accessing and exploiting TikTok user data “is one that the U.S. government has been evaluating through a formal review and investigation” conducted by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., it said. Because adjudicating the state’s claims “would require a state court to second-guess the federal government’s assessment of the nature and degree of any national security threat from China vis-a-vis TikTok, this case necessarily raises disputed and substantial questions of federal law,” it said.