TikTok sues U.S. over law threatening to ban its use in the country

The company had warned it would take legal action in April after the U.S. Congress passed a law requiring ByteDance, a Chinese technology conglomerate, to sell the social network’s operations in the U.S. or face a ban on operating.

“Congress has taken the unprecedented step of expressly singling out and banning TikTok — a vibrant online forum for protected debate and expression used by 170 million Americans to create, share, and view videos across the Internet,” the lawsuit said.

The company claims that the “Protecting Americans from Apps Controlled by Foreign Adversaries Act,” which would force TikTok to be shut down in the country by January 19, 2025, is “an extraordinary and unconstitutional assertion of power.”

On April 24, it was announced that ByteDance had 270 days to find an investor from a country other than a “foreign adversary” to sell the company to, something it has refused to do.

The legal document adds that if the law is enforced, the consequences would be “fundamentally contrary to the Constitution’s commitment to freedom of expression and individual liberty.”

Therefore, she asks the court to issue a declaratory judgment that the law violates the U.S. Constitution, an order prohibiting the attorney general from enforcing it, a judgment in her favour, and to award her “any other relief that may be appropriate.”

Lawmakers from both parties and officials in the Biden administration said in April that China could obtain information about U.S. users from ByteDance and use its influence over public opinion to manipulate what users see on the platform.

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Patrick Robinson

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