In response to the Tiktok Act, which was recently passed by the US Congress and signed into law by President Biden, Chinese company Bytedance and its popular video service have filed a lawsuit against the US government. The lawsuit seeks to block a law that would ban Tiktok in the United States if Bytedance does not sell its operations in the country.
The companies argue that the law violates the US Constitution’s First Amendment protection of freedom of speech. They believe that imposing a permanent nationwide ban on one platform is unprecedented, and selling Tiktok’s US operations is not technically or legally possible within the given timeline. If Bytedance fails to sell Tiktok’s operations by January 19th next year, the app will be banned from Apple and Google app stores.
Bytedance and Tiktok claim that shutting down the app will silence over 170 million Americans who use it for communication purposes. While concerns about national security risks posed by Tiktok have been raised in the US, it’s worth noting that administration officials have stated their goal is to remove Chinese ownership of the app, not ban it entirely.
The ongoing legal dispute between Bytedance and the US government may require public presentation of classified documents to justify Tiktok’s threat to national security. However, with no indication that Bytedance intends to find a buyer for Tiktok’s US operations before January 19th next year, this case could potentially escalate all the way up to the Supreme Court.