TikTok sued the federal government on Tuesday to block a new law that would force its China-based parent company to sell the popular video-sharing app within the next year. Otherwise, it would face a total ban in the United States.
The lawsuit, filed in a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., seeks a court order to block implementation of the bipartisan bill that President Biden signed into law last month after rapidly passing Congress.
TikTok said the law, called the Protecting Americans from Regulatory Applications of Foreign Adversaries Act, is “unconstitutional” and that a sale within the 12-month deadline would be “commercially and technically It is legally impossible.”
“There is no question: this law will force the shutdown of TikTok by January 19, 2025, and will protect the 170 million people who use the platform to communicate in ways that cannot be replicated in other countries. Americans will be silenced,” the complaint says.
TikTok asked the court to find the law “in violation of the United States Constitution” and to grant “any further relief it deems appropriate.”
White House representatives referred questions to the Justice Department, which declined to comment on the lawsuit.
Representatives of the House China Select Committee, which supported the bill, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The law requires parent company ByteDance to sell its stake in TikTok by January 19, 2025, the day before the end of President Biden's term. Biden has the option of extending the deal by three months if he deems sufficient progress has been made.
Tuesday's legal filing is expected to put that schedule on hold and push back a potential ban by several years, according to NBC News.
“The Chinese government has made it clear that it will not allow the sale of its recommendation engine, which is key to TikTok's success in the United States,” the complaint states.
TikTok further added that moving the source code to the U.S. would “take years” and “require a completely new set of engineers to become sufficiently familiar with the source code to perform the ongoing maintenance and development activities required for the platform.” “There is,” he claimed.
Gautam Hans, associate professor of clinical law and associate director of the First Amendment Clinic at Cornell University, said whether TikTok can prevail in the lawsuit depends on the national security concerns that led Congress to pass the law in the first place. may depend on the level of concern
“I think TikTok has a strong chance given the First Amendment issues with the law,” Hans said. “The question is whether the purported national security concerns are actually specific and concrete enough to convince a judge that this law is constitutional.”
Critics argue that TikTok essentially serves as a weapon for the Chinese Communist Party, facilitating everything from election interference to terrorist-supporting propaganda to mental health crises among teens. They also warn that China could exploit TikTok to gain backdoor access to U.S. users' personal data.
TikTok has denied all claims and touted its efforts to build a safe and secure platform, including a partnership with tech giant Oracle, which stores user data on U.S.-based servers.
Nevertheless, TikTok's critics are adamant that the app poses a serious threat to U.S. national security.
Jacob Helberg, a member of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission who played a key role in organizing support for the law in Washington, called TikTok's lawsuit “dishonest.”
“TikTok's claims contradict more than 100 years of legal precedent,” Helberg said in a statement. “It also fails once again to address the central national security issue at hand. ByteDance is at the mercy of the Chinese Communist Party. TikTok's relationship with the Chinese Communist Party is no longer hypothetical, but numerical. It's a well-documented pattern corroborated by dozens of corporate leaks, former executives, and whistleblowers.”
Calls for a U.S. ban reignited last year after data showed that pro-Palestinian content appeared to have a much wider reach on TikTok than pro-Israel content.
Lawmakers were also alarmed by the emergence of a TikTok trend in which users share videos endorsing 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden's infamous “Letter to America.” The video was filled with terrorist rhetoric and anti-Semitism.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) concluded in March that the Chinese Communist Party used the app to influence U.S. elections.
Intelligence officials say TikTok plays a role in “malign influence operations” and that “accounts run by China's propaganda arm targeted candidates from both political parties during the 2022 U.S. midterm elections.” It is reported that he did so.”
The divestment bill passed despite a multimillion-dollar lobbying effort by TikTok. TikTok has repeatedly touted its huge U.S. user base and benefits to the U.S. economy, despite unsuccessful attempts to block its passage.
The company commissioned an economic impact study, which found that TikTok “contributed $24.2 billion to the U.S. economy in 2023” through its work with small and medium-sized businesses.
A potential forced sale of TikTok has attracted a number of suitors, including former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and former Activision Blizzard president Bobby Kotick.
As the newspaper reported, Secretary Mnuchin has pitched to potential investors a plan to buy the TikTok brand and rebuild the recommendation algorithm in the U.S. with the help of a company with expertise in artificial intelligence. There is. That could allow Mnuchin and other buyers to circumvent China's strict technology export laws.