TikTok is suing the US government, claiming the new federal law forcing the Chinese based app company to sell or be banned from the country is unlawful, full and violates the First Amendment.

The social media app argues national security concerns aren't a sufficient reason to restrict free speech and is asking a federal appeals court to block the potential ban.

It sets up a court showdown over the responsibility of both big tech and the government to protect Americans.

Data Online, which was the topic of a recent roundtable held by Congressman Frank Pallone, who wants Congress to draft legislation that would create more of those safeguards.

Raven Santana has the story.

I want to send you PR, I want you I want to send you a product.

I want you to review this and people will give out their information thinking they're going to get like an IT product or something, but then they're just giving out their information and they're susceptible to just the data being sent out to anywhere at that point.

Teens may be savvy when it comes to using apps on social media, but 17 year old Sara Nasralla, a junior at Edison High School and member of the Peloton Youth Advisory Council, says she's confident the same can't be said when it comes to privacy.

Young people tend to not trust the government bigger corporations because these bigger corporations are promising them things.

And I think people are just younger generation like the younger generation.

And people of my generation aren't reading into the laws that are being passed and what is being put in place to protect them.

I want people to be more educated about what is being passed.

That's why she made her concerns heard during a roundtable discussion hosted by Congressman Frank Pallone.

They were joined by other professors and lawmakers to discuss how to hold tech companies accountable for protecting America's data online.

What we find is that not only problems with privacy in terms of social media, but also everyone trying to basically gather all your private information, whether it's your Social Security number or your, you know, taste in music, whatever it is, and then selling it, you know, for profits.

Malone is the ranking member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which has jurisdiction over technology policy.

The committee is currently considering a proposal to create national privacy protections for Americans data.

There's an overall issue that not collecting new data that's not necessary, punishing those who do that, and then also allowing people to go back and erase or delete data to collect.

The proposal comes after President Biden signed a law in April introduced by POLOGNE to make it illegal for data brokers to sell or otherwise make Americans sensitive data available to China, North Korea, Russia or Iran.

The legislation was included in the bill to force the sale of TikTok to a non-Chinese company.

That bill has been met with mixed reactions.

Oh, is tremendous pushback.

Why?

Well, because all the companies that collect all this information want to continue to do so.

And so this is not going to be easy.

Easily accomplished.

His comments were echoed by other members of the roundtable that shared why.

Media has become the opiate of the people.

Because people want those 15 minutes of fame or 2 minutes of fame.

Everywhere you go, people want a photograph to put on the gram and they don't think about what the implications of that.

We have so many implications, whether it's protecting you there, whether it's looking at the health care records and whether, you know, that idea of, you know, people believe that we gave you the right to opt out.

So, you know, but most people, as you said, they don't know what that means and they don't know how to do.

Pallone and other members at the roundtable discussion all agree that passing the privacy protection legislation currently in committee could also prevent any future privacy and security issues caused by A.I.. For NJ Spotlight News.

I'm Raven Santana.