On Tuesday, TikTok and its Chinese parent company ByteDance initiated a legal challenge against the United States, contesting a law that mandates the sale of the app or faces a ban in the US.
This move comes approximately two weeks after President Joe Biden signed a bill giving TikTok a 270-day window to secure a non-Chinese buyer or risk being barred from operating in the country.
The video-sharing platform asserts that this law is unconstitutional.
“For the first time in history, Congress has enacted a law that subjects a single, named speech platform to a permanent, nationwide ban, and bars every American from participating in a unique online community with more than 1 billion people worldwide,” stated the petition by TikTok and ByteDance.
The petition contends that the legislation violates the First Amendment, alleging that “Congress has made a law curtailing massive amounts of protected speech.”
Furthermore, it argues that the mandated divestiture, necessary for TikTok to continue operating in the United States, is “simply not possible” within the required timeframe.
The White House has the authority to extend the initial 270-day deadline once, granting an additional 90 days. Throughout this period, the app would remain accessible to its roughly 170 million US users.