The lawsuit calls the law an “unprecedented violation” of the First Amendment
TikTok passes on the counterattack and is suing the United States government in an attempt to stop the implementation of a billpassed last month, which seeks to force the app's Chinese owner to sell it or face a ban.
The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in the U.S. Court of Appeals, argues that the bill violates the constitutional free speech protections.
The suit calls the law an “unprecedented violation” of the First Amendment.
“For the first time in history, Congress has enacted a law that subjects a single, nominal speech platform to a permanent, nationwide ban,” TikTok writes in the lawsuit, “and prohibits any American from participating in a single online community of more than 1 billion people worldwide.”
The company argues that invoking national security concerns is not a sufficient reason to restrict free speechand that the burden is on the federal government to demonstrate that this restriction is justified. It has not met that burden, the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit, which has been expected since President Joe Biden signed the bill into law on April 24, is expected to drag on an already long timeline for the possible ban or sale of the application. ByteDance, the Chinese owner of TikTok, already had more than a year to make a move. Now, legal proceedings will interrupt that timeline, meaning it could be years before the ban takes effect.
Tuesday's lawsuit is the latest development in a years-long effort by the US government to effectively ban TikTok. Efforts to curb the popular video-sharing app continue into 2020 and beyond under both the Trump and Biden administrations. The federal government and dozens of states have already banned the use of TikTok on government-owned devices.
source: newsbeast.gr
