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VietnameseGriffin: ‘In its decision to uphold this law, the court has protected Americans from being influenced and manipulated by a foreign adversary’
LITTLE ROCK – Attorney General Tim Griffin today issued the following statement after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld a federal law requiring the Chinese-owned company ByteDance Ltd. to divest its ownership of the social media platform TikTok:
“In August, I joined an amicus brief supporting the Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act passed overwhelmingly by Congress. This act requires ByteDance, which is controlled by the Chinese Communist Party, to divest its ownership of TikTok by January 19, 2025.
“In its decision to uphold this law, the court has protected Americans from being influenced and manipulated by a foreign adversary. I am proud to have joined the amicus in support of this law, and I will continue my efforts to protect Arkansans from the deceptive practices of TikTok. We must be vigilant across all fronts to keep our private information out of the hands of the communist Chinese government.”
To read a copy of the court’s decision, click here.
To read the amicus brief that was filed by Attorney General Griffin and 20 other attorneys general, click here.
For a printer-friendly version of this release, click here.
About Attorney General Tim Griffin
Tim Griffin was sworn in as the 57th Attorney General of Arkansas on January 10, 2023, having previously served as the state’s 20th Lieutenant Governor from 2015-2023. From 2011-2015, Griffin served as the 24th representative of Arkansas’s Second Congressional District, where he served on the House Committee on Ways and Means, House Armed Services Committee, House Committee on Foreign Affairs, House Committee on Ethics and House Committee on the Judiciary while also serving as a Deputy Whip for the Majority.
Griffin has served as an officer in the U.S. Army Reserve Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) Corps for more than 28 years and currently holds the rank of colonel. In 2005, Griffin was mobilized to active duty as an Army prosecutor at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, and served with the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) in Mosul, Iraq.
He is currently serving as the Commander of the 2d Legal Operations Detachment in New Orleans, Louisiana. His previous assignments include serving as the Commander of the 134th Legal Operations Detachment at Fort Liberty (née Bragg), North Carolina, and as a Senior Legislative Advisor to the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness at the Pentagon. Griffin earned a master’s degree in strategic studies as a Distinguished Honor Graduate from the U.S. Army War College, Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania.
Griffin also served as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas, and Special Assistant to the President and Deputy Director of Political Affairs for President George W. Bush; Special Assistant to Assistant Attorney General Michael Chertoff, Criminal Division, U.S. Department of Justice; Special Assistant U.S. Attorney, U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Arkansas; Senior Investigative Counsel, Government Reform and Oversight Committee, U.S. House of Representatives; and Associate Independent Counsel, Office of Independent Counsel David M. Barrett, In re: HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros.
Griffin is a graduate of Magnolia High School, Hendrix College in Conway, and Tulane Law School in New Orleans. He attended graduate school at Oxford University. He is admitted to practice law in Arkansas (active) and Louisiana (inactive). Griffin lives in Little Rock with his wife, Elizabeth, a Camden native, and their three children.
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