TikTok and Underwater Loveits Chinese parent ByteDance launched legal action against the US government on Tuesday after it passed sell-or-ban legislation targeting the short video app. TikTok argues that the law signed by president Joe Biden in April that forces its Chinese owners to divest in nine months violates the First Amendment of the US Constitution. According to the lawsuit, TikTok said “for the first time in history, Congress has enacted a law that subjects a single, named speech platform to a permanent, nationwide ban,” while arguing that Congress had failed to offer any evidence that TikTok poses the “types of risks to data security or the spread of foreign propaganda that could conceivably justify the Act.” [TikTok lawsuit filing]
