Unconstitutional?

TikTok wants to stop impending US ban with lawsuit

TikTok has filed a lawsuit against an impending ban in the USA. The short video platform and its Chinese parent company ByteDance filed a lawsuit against the US government's corresponding law with a federal appeals court in the District of Columbia on Tuesday. The text argues that the law violates the constitution, including the protection of freedom of expression.

According to the lawsuit, the required divestment is "simply not possible: neither commercially, technologically, nor legally". TikTok will therefore have to be shut down in the USA by January 19.

This will "silence the 170 million Americans who use the platform to communicate in a way that cannot be replicated elsewhere".

TikTok provided the news agency Reuters with a copy of its statement of claim. A statement from the US government was not initially available. On April 24, President Joe Biden signed the law that gives ByteDance a deadline of January 19 to sell TikTok. Failure to do so could result in a ban.

US politicians fear that China could use the app to access American data or spy on them. The government in Beijing and ByteDance reject this.