On Tuesday, TikTok filed a lawsuit against the United States government in a bid to halt the enforcement of a bill passed in April that seeks to force the app's Chinese owner to either sell the application or ban it. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, states that the bill, titled the "American Security and Protection from Foreign Influence Act," violates constitutional protections for free speech.
The lawsuit describes the law as an "unprecedented violation" of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. TikTok wrote in the complaint: "For the first time in history, Congress has enacted a law that subjects a defined platform for free expression to a permanent nationwide ban, preventing every American from engaging in a unique online community of over a billion people worldwide."
The company argues that invoking national security concerns is not a sufficient reason to restrict free speech, asserting that the burden lies on the federal government to prove that such restrictions are justified. The lawsuit claims that Congress has provided no evidence indicating that TikTok poses the types of data security or foreign propaganda risks that would justify the law, and has failed to demonstrate that the application represents a threat to data security.
