In response to the Tiktok Act, which was signed into law by President Joe Biden in April 2021, Chinese company Bytedance and its Tiktok video service have filed a lawsuit against the US government. The companies are seeking to block a law that would ban the Tiktok app in the United States if Bytedance does not sell its operations in the country.
The lawsuit claims that the law violates the US Constitution’s protection of freedom of speech. Bytedance and Tiktok argue that the law imposes a permanent nationwide ban on one platform, which has never been done before. According to the lawsuit, if Bytedance does not sell Tiktok’s operations in US by January 19th of next year, the app will be banned from Apple and Google app stores.
However, Bytedance and Tiktok claim that selling Tiktok’s US operations is not technologically or legally possible. They also argue that shutting down the app will silence 170 million Americans who use it for communication. The companies believe that removing Chinese ownership of Tiktok is necessary for national security reasons but banning it entirely goes too far.
The administration has stated that their goal is to remove Chinese ownership of Tiktok but not ban it entirely. However, this legal dispute between Bytedance and the US government may require public presentation of classified documents to justify Tiktok’s threat to national security. If this legal battle continues, it could potentially escalate all the way to the US Supreme Court.