TikTok fulfilled its threats this Tuesday and filed a lawsuit in a District of Columbia court with the intention of blocking a US law that could force a ban on the popular app in all the country.
The company had warned that it would take legal action in April, after the United States Congress approved said law that requires ByteDance, a Chinese technology conglomerateto sell the operations of the social network in the North American country or face a ban on operating.
“Congress has taken the unprecedented step of expressly singling out and banning TikTok: a vibrant online forum for debate and protected expression used by 170 million Americans to create, share, and view videos over the Internet,” the lawsuit states.
The company alleges that the ‘Protect Americans from Applications Controlled by Foreign Adversaries Act’, which will force close TikTok in the country before January 19, 2025is “an extraordinary and unconstitutional assertion of power.”
On April 24 it was announced that ByteDance He had 270 days to find an investor from a country that is not a “foreign adversary” to sell him the company, something he has refused to do.
The legal document adds that if the law is followed, the consequences would be “fundamentally contrary to the Constitution’s commitment to freedom of expression and individual liberty.”
For this reason, he asks the court to issue a ruling declaring that said law violates the United States Constitution, an order that prohibits the attorney general from applying it, that a ruling be issued in his favor and grant him “any other reparation that is appropriate.”
Congressmen from both parties and officials in the Biden Administration assured in April that China can obtain information about users in the United States from ByteDance and use its influence over public opinion, manipulating what users see on the platform.
