TikTok has filed a legal challenge against the United States over a law that President Joe Biden signed last month, which would outlaw the app nationwide unless it finds a buyer within a year.
In the petition filed in the Court of Appeal for the District of Columbia Circuit on Tuesday, the company said the legislation exceeds the bounds of the Constitution and suppresses the speech of millions of Americans.
“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,” according to the legal filing.
The law, passed through Congress at lightning speed, which caught many inside TikTok off guard, is intended to force TikTok to be sold to a non-Chinese company in nine months, with the possibility of a three-month extension if a possible sale is in play.
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TikTok says law based on “speculative and analytically flawed concerns”
Lawmakers in Washington have long been suspicious of TikTok, fearing its Chinese owner could use the popular app to spy on Americans or spread dangerous disinformation.
But in the company’s legal petition, lawyers for TikTok say invoking “national security” does not give the government a free pass to violate the First Amendment, especially, TikTok, argues, when not public evidence has been presented of the Chinese government using the app as a weapon against Americans.
According to the filing, the law is based on “Speculative and analytically flawed concerns about data security and content manipulation – concerns that, even if grounded in fact, could be addressed through far less restrictive and more narrowly tailored means.”
