by Makena Kelly at WIRED
TikTok sued the US federal government on Tuesday, arguing that the possible app ban violates the First Amendment.
Last month, President Biden signed a bill that forces TikTok and its Chinese owner, ByteDance, to divest its ownership of the app or face a nationwide ban. At the time, TikTok said that it planned to sue, calling the law unconstitutional.
In the lawsuit, TikTok says that the law violates the First Amendment and the divesting requirement is “simply not possible.”
“If Congress can do this, it can circumvent the First Amendment by invoking national security and ordering the publisher of any individual newspaper or website to sell to avoid being shut down,” the lawsuit said. “And for TikTok, any such divestiture would disconnect Americans from the rest of the global community on a platform devoted to shared content—an outcome fundamentally at odds with the Constitution’s commitment to both free speech and individual liberty.”
TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.
Continue Reading