Today (May 7), TikTok filed a lawsuit against the United States government over a measure that could potentially ban the popular app nationwide. This move followed through on previous legal threats made by the company after President Joe Biden signed the legislation, titled the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act. If TikTok loses the case, it faces the possibility of being removed from the country unless its parent company, ByteDance, sells the app to a non-Chinese entity by mid-January 2025.
In a petition filed at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, TikTok and ByteDance argued that the law is unconstitutional, as it restricts freedom of speech and access to information. "The 'qualified divestiture' demanded by the act to allow TikTok to continue operating in the United States is simply not possible: not commercially, not technologically, not legally. And certainly not on the 270-day timeline required by the act," the petition read. They also claimed that Congress overstepped its bounds by targeting and effectively banning a specific platform, which they argued violates the First Amendment.
As REVOLT previously reported, the legal action came after years of concerns regarding TikTok's alleged ties to the Chinese government, with fears that user data could be accessed by Chinese officials for intelligence purposes or propaganda efforts. TikTok vehemently denied these allegations and took steps to address U.S. government concerns, including hosting user data on servers owned by American tech giant Oracle.
"The fact is we have invested billions of dollars to keep U.S. data safe and our platform free from outside influence and manipulation," read a statement from TikTok back in April. "This ban would devastate 7 million businesses and silence 170 million Americans. As we continue to challenge this unconstitutional ban, we will continue investing and innovating to ensure TikTok remains a space where Americans of all walks of life can safely come to share their experiences, find joy, and be inspired."