TikTok, ByteDance file lawsuit in court to block potential US ban
TIKTOK, an online video entertainment platform, and its Chinese parent company ByteDance filed a legal challenge against the United States on Tuesday, taking aim at a law that would force the app to be sold or face a US ban.
This comes around two weeks after President Joe Biden signed a bill giving TikTok 270 days to find a non-Chinese buyer or face a ban in the country.
“Congress has taken the unprecedented step of expressly singling out and banning TikTok: a vibrant online forum for protected speech and expression used by 170 million Americans to create, share, and view videos over the Internet,” said TikTok in the petition filed in the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, adding that “For the first time in history, Congress has enacted a law that subjects a single, named speech platform to a permanent, nationwide ban, and bars every American from participating in a unique online community with more than 1 billion people worldwide.”
The suit argued that the move violates the First Amendment, charging that “Congress has made a law curtailing massive amounts of protected speech.”
TikTok pointed out in the petition that the law — the Protecting Americans From Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act — is unconstitutional.
“Banning TikTok is so obviously unconstitutional, in fact, that even the Act’s sponsors recognized that reality, and therefore have tried mightily to depict the law not as a ban at all, but merely a regulation of TikTok’s ownership.”
The White House can extend the 270day deadline once, by 90 days. During this period, the app would continue to operate for its 170 million US users.
“But in reality, there is no choice,” said TikTok, noting that the “qualified divestiture” demanded by the Act to allow
TikTok to continue operating in the US is simply not possible: not commercially, not technologically, not legally.
ByteDance has said it has no plans to sell TikTok, leaving the lawsuit, which will likely go to the US Supreme Court, as its only option to avoid a ban.
“There is no question: the Act will force a shutdown of TikTok by January 19, 2025,” the lawsuit said, “silencing (those) who use the platform to communicate in ways that cannot be replicated elsewhere.”
The TikTok ban, citing unfounded national security concerns due to its Chinese ownership, has drawn widespread criticism from various quarters both within and outside the US, with people questioning the motivations behind Washington’s suppression of the popular app, and raising concerns about constitutional rights and the principle of fair competition being violated. (Agencies)