TikTok has filed a retaliatory lawsuit against the U.S. government in court

In response to the House, Senate and President Biden's endorsement of a bill to ban TikTok, the company that owns the ByteDance app has no intention of backing down. Instead, it has filed a lawsuit against the US government, charging lawmakers with their own measures.

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TikTok's court filing has intensified the fight to overturn the ban, with the US government now having to defend its case for banning the video app in the country. The statement says Congress "took the unprecedented step of singling out and banning TikTok" and argues that the action was "unconstitutional."

TikTok also states that a separation from parent company ByteDance is not possible, which would force the app to cease operations in the US by 19 January 2025. TikTok added that this could potentially disenfranchise 170 million Americans and "prohibits every American from participating in a unique online community of more than 1 billion people worldwide."

If all legal efforts fail, ByteDance will apparently choose to remove TikTok from the US rather than sell it to an American buyer. The sale of TikTok faces serious obstacles because of the algorithms and "millions of lines" of software code that are a key part of ByteDance's business. As a Chinese app, TikTok is subject to China's Export Control Law, which prohibits the sale of algorithms and source code to a foreign entity without the approval of the Chinese Communist Party. The platform is also demanding that U.S. lawmakers provide evidence of the CCP's misuse of the app.

Insisting on US constitutional rights such as free speech and the First Amendment is TikTok's last resort to overturn the ban.

Source: The Verge