TikTok and ByteDance go to court over law that would allow blocking the platform in the US
The TikTok platform and its parent company ByteDance have filed a lawsuit in a US federal court to block a law that could ban the social network in the country, Reuters reports.
This is a law recently signed by US President Joe Biden. It provides for a ban on TikTok in the United States if ByteDance does not sell the platform within a year. The document was previously supported by the House of Representatives and the Senate.
However, TikTok and ByteDance argue that the law violates the US Constitution, in particular the First Amendment to protect freedom of speech. The lawsuit also states that the sale is “simply impossible: neither commercially, technologically, nor legally.”
“There is no question: the Act (law) will force a shutdown of TikTok by January 19, 2025, silencing the 170 million Americans who use the platform to communicate in ways that cannot be replicated elsewhere,” the lawsuit says.
Earlier, it was reported that ByteDance would rather choose the option to shut down TikTok in the United States than sell the social network if it no longer has legal methods to fight the US legislation banning TikTok in the country.
By the way, recently, the head of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen did not rule out the possibility of banning TikTok in the European Union.