TikTok and its parent company, ByteDance, officially filed a lawsuit against the US government to block a recent law that could force a sale or ban of the short-form video-sharing app in the US. The social media app company said the bill, which President Joe Biden signed into law on April 24, violates constitutional protections of free speech. The suit even went as far as to say that the law is an “unprecedented violation” of the First Amendment.
“For the first time in history, Congress has enacted a law that subjects a single, named speech platform to a permanent, nationwide ban,” TikTok wrote in the lawsuit, “and bars every American from participating in a unique online community with more than 1 billion people worldwide.”
The lawsuit also says that ByteDance divesting in TikTok wouldn’t be possible, forcing a shutdown of the app by January 19, 2025, at the latest.
Neither the White House nor the Justice Department has released a public response to the new lawsuit.
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