TikTok is suing the US government over a possible ban

TikTok and its parent company ByteDance have taken legal action against the US government after Congress and President Biden passed a recent law. This law requires TikTok to sell its operations within nine months or be removed from US app stores. TikTok argues that this legislation violates its constitutional rights, specifically the First Amendment. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., was expected given ByteDance’s strong stance against TikTok’s sales. The company claims that the data of its US users is safe.

“There is no doubt about it: the law will force a shutdown of TikTok by January 19, 2025,” the lawsuit said, “silencing the 170 million Americans who use the platform to communicate in ways that cannot be replicated elsewhere imposed,” the lawsuit says. “For the first time in history, Congress has passed a law that subjects a single named speech platform to a permanent, nationwide ban, banning every American from participating in a unique online community of more than a billion people worldwide.”

The suite continued: “qualified divestiture” required by law to allow TikTok to continue operating in the United States is simply not possible: not commercially, not technologically, not legally. And certainly not within the 270-day timeline required by law. Petitioners have repeatedly explained this to the U.S. government, and the bill’s sponsors were aware that divestment is not possible.”

“There are good reasons why Congress has never passed a law like this before. In keeping with the First Amendment’s guarantee of freedom of speech, the United States has long championed a free and open Internet—and the Supreme Court has repeatedly recognized that speech “conveyed over the Internet” is fully eligible ‘the protection of the First Amendment’. The bottom line is that the law’s national security argument is dubious and dubious at best. “If Congress can do this, it can circumvent the First Amendment by invoking national security and ordering the publisher of an individual newspaper or website to sell it to avoid being shut down. And for TikTok, such a divestiture would disconnect Americans from the rest of the global community on a platform dedicated to shared content — an outcome that is fundamentally at odds with the Constitution’s commitment to both free speech and individual liberty. ”