TikTok, ByteDance sue U.S. to stop law that could lead to ban on popular app TikTok

ByteDance, the company that owns TikTok, sued the U.S. government on Tuesday to stop the new law that could lead to ban on the popular smartphone app.

The requirement to force ByteDance to sell the app or face a ban in the U.S. was inside of the $95 billion foreign aid package that President Biden signed into law recently.

ByteDance argued in the lawsuit that the potential ban is “obviously unconstitutional," partially because it doesn't offer the company a choice.

"Banning TikTok is so obviously unconstitutional, in fact, that even the Act’s sponsors recognized that reality, and therefore have tried mightily to depict the law not as a ban at all, but merely a regulation of TikTok’s ownership. According to its sponsors, the Act responds to TikTok’s ultimate ownership by ByteDance Ltd., a company with Chinese subsidiaries whose employees support various ByteDance businesses, including TikTok. They claim that the Act is not a ban because it offers ByteDance a choice: divest TikTok’s U.S. business or be shut down.But in reality, there is no choice," read the lawsuit.

"The 'qualified divestiture' demanded by the Act to allow TikTok to continue operating in the United States is simply not possible: not commercially, not technologically, not legally. And certainly not on the 270-day timeline required by the Act," the lawsuit also read.

TikTok and ByteDance said in the lawsuit that "there is no question: the Act 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."