TikTok sued the United States government, in an effort to prevent the advancement of a bill that provides for the possible ban of the social network in the country.
According to NBC News, the lawsuit reached court this Tuesday, with the company alleging that constitutional protections of free speech are being violated, and that the national security concerns raised by the US government do not justify the action.
Further, the lawsuit alleges that the bill is an “unprecedented violation” of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.
“For the first time in history, Congress has enacted a law that subjects a single, specified platform to a permanent nationwide ban […] and prohibits all Americans from participating in a single online community of more than a billion people around the world”, the process reads.
US President Joe Biden signed a bill on Wednesday, April 24 that gives ByteDance nine months to sell TikTok (with a possible three-month extension if the deal is ongoing), otherwise it will be delisted of Apple and Google stores in North America.
“ByteDance has no plans to sell TikTok,” the company said on April 26 on Toutiao, a Chinese social network it also owns.
Bytedance also clarified that “there is nothing true” about rumors that the company was exploring options to sell TikTok without the algorithm used by the application.
Earlier this week, TikTok had already announced that it would initiate legal action to block the legislation, which it considers unconstitutional.
“We will continue to fight for your rights in the courts. The facts and the Constitution are on our side and we hope to prevail”, assured TikTok leader Shou Zi Chew, originally from Singapore.
With short videos, TikTok, which has attracted more than 1.5 billion users worldwide, has been accused for several years in the United States and Europe of causing addictive behavior among teenagers.
After the legislation was voted on by congressmen and promulgated by the White House, TikTok warned that it would use all possible legal remedies against the law, called “Protecting [North] Americans from Applications Controlled by Foreign Adversaries”.
The text’s promoters raised suspicions of manipulation and spying on North American users by Chinese authorities through TikTok.
According to the law, the platform has 270 days to find new non-Chinese investors, failing which it will be banned in the USA.
In 2020, TikTok had managed to block a similar decree from Donald Trump. At the time, he appealed the decision and a judge provisionally suspended the decree, considering that the reasons given for blocking the social network were exaggerated and threatened freedom of expression.
The new law aims to overcome the difficulties encountered, including in States that sought to ban the application.
Several analysts understand that the Supreme Court of Justice may be sensitive to the national security arguments advanced by congressmen.
“TikTok has won in previous challenges based on the First Amendment”, commented Gautam Hans, professor of law at Cornell University, plus the fact that this law has been approved by Democrats and Republicans “may encourage judges to refer to a Congressional decision that the company poses a risk to national security.”
However, he relativized, “without a public debate on the exact nature of these risks, it is difficult to determine why the courts should validate such an unprecedented law.”
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