TikTok and China’s ByteDance sue to block US law seeking sale or ban of app

The suit argues that the law violates the US Constitution on a number of grounds, including running afoul of First Amendment free speech protections

Spurred by lawmakers’ fears that China could gain access to Americans’ personal data, the measure gives ByteDance until January 19 to divest TikTok

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The lawsuit says the Chinese government “has made clear that it would not permit a divestment of the recommendation engine that is a key to the success of TikTok in the United States”. Photo illustration: Reuters

Published: 12:28am, 8 May 2024Updated: 5:40am, 8 May 2024

TikTok and its Chinese parent company ByteDance filed a federal lawsuit on Tuesday seeking to block a US law that would force the divestiture of the popular short-video app or ban its use nationwide.

The companies filed the suit in the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia arguing that the law violates the First Amendment of the US Constitution, which protects free speech, as well as several other constitutional provisions.

The law, signed by US President Joe Biden last month, gives ByteDance until January 19 to sell TikTok or face a ban – with a three-month extension possible if ByteDance is determined to be making progress towards a sale.

A proposal to force a sale of the app within six months passed speedily through the House of Representatives in March before it stalled in the Senate. But a version of that bill extending the divestiture time frame was attached to a larger foreign policy bill that Biden signed into law.

The lawsuit argued that a divestiture “is simply not possible: not commercially, not technologically, not legally”.

It specified that the Chinese government “has made clear that it would not permit a divestment of the recommendation engine that is a key to the success of TikTok in the United States”.

China’s Ministry of Commerce has repeatedly signalled that it would oppose a forced sale. In 2020, Beijing updated its rules governing exports to include technology similar to the algorithm that TikTok employs to recommend content to its users.

US lawmakers, citing China’s national security laws, have expressed concern about TikTok’s potential to monitor and manipulate Americans through modifying its algorithm and transmitting citizens’ personal data to Beijing – concerns that TikTok has decried as unsupported by evidence.