TikTok, ByteDance sue U.S. over law seeking sale or ban of app
TikTok and its Chinese parent company ByteDance said on Tuesday they filed suit in U.S. federal court seeking to block a law signed by President Joe Biden that would force the divestiture of the short video app used by 170 million Americans or ban its use.
The companies said they filed a lawsuit in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia arguing that the law violates the U.S. Constitution on a number of grounds, including running afoul of First Amendment free speech protections. The law, signed by Biden on April 24, gives China’s ByteDance until Jan. 19 to sell TikTok or face a ban.
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Many experts have questioned whether any potential buyer possesses the financial resources to buy TikTok and if China and U.S. government agencies would approve a sale.
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To move the TikTok source code to the United States “would take years for an entirely new set of engineers to gain sufficient familiarity,” according to the lawsuit.
The four-year battle over TikTok is a significant front in the ongoing conflict over the internet and technology between the United States and China. In April, Apple AAPL.O said China had ordered it to remove Meta Platforms’ META.O WhatsApp and Threads from its App Store in China over Chinese national security concerns.
