Even though President Biden, the US House and Senate gave the nod to TikTok’s ban bill, the app isn’t throwing in the towel just yet. Recently, the app’s CEO promised to push back against the ban, and now ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, has fired back with a lawsuit against the US government, turning the tables on lawmakers.
TikTok sues the US government over ban
TikTok is taking Uncle Sam to court over the new law that wants to split the short-form video app from its China-based parent company ByteDance or kick it out of the US. In its legal filing, TikTok argues that Congress has gone where no one’s gone before by targeting TikTok directly and calls the whole deal “unconstitutional.”
The complaint makes the case that selling off from ByteDance just isn’t doable, and if the law sticks, TikTok’s looking at a forced shutdown by January 19, 2025. According to the filing:
The “qualified divestiture” demanded by the Act to allow TikTok to continue operating in the United States is simply not possible: not commercially, not technologically, not legally. And certainly not on the 270-day timeline required by the Act.
Just last month, President Joe Biden signed off on a law, giving ByteDance nine months to split from TikTok or shut down in the US over national security worries. But the lawsuit claims the US government hasn’t shown any proof of China pulling any funny business with TikTok. The lawsuit puts it like this:
Even the statements by individual Members of Congress and a congressional committee report merely indicate concern about the hypothetical possibility that TikTok could be misused in the future, without citing specific evidence — even though the platform has operated prominently in the United States since it was first launched in 2017.
TikTok is further saying a US ban just would not work. Why? Apparently, moving “millions of lines” of code to a new owner ain’t happening, especially with China’s strict rules.
See, as a Chinese app, TikTok is bound by China’s Export Control Law, which says no selling algorithms or source codes to foreign entities without CCP (the Chinese Communist Party) approval. TikTok is warning that axing the algorithms in the US version would leave Americans on a lonely “island,” cut off from the global TikTok scene.
TikTok is taking it to the courts, hoping for a ruling that slams the Biden administration law as unconstitutional. The company is also gunning for an order to stop the attorney general from enforcing it. Keep your eyes peeled in the coming months; it is make-or-break time for TikTok in the US, so stick around for the latest updates.
