On Tuesday, TikTok fired back against the U.S. government over a law that could put an end to the social video platform.
TikTok and its parent company Bytedance’s lawsuit against the federal government claims the legislation circumvents the First Amendment. The company says the law’s requirement for TikTok to be divested is “not possible: not commercially, not technologically, not legally.”
“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,” TikTok said in the petition filed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
The Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Acttargeted TikTok, labeling it as a “foreign adversary controlled application.” TikTok has 270 days from when the act was signed by President Biden to either sell the app to an entity in the U.S. or face a shutdown. There are groups interested in buying the popular social video app, but the company has said that it’s not for sale.
The House of Representatives and the Senate swiftly passed the legislation back in April as part of the National Security Act, which provided additional funding to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan.
While the law does focus on TikTok, legal experts say the ban could affect other apps as well.
“There’s plenty of room here for creative interpretation for how someone could be in a foreign country calling the shots without being an owner,” Evan Brown, a Chicago-based lawyer with a focus on technology, told Gizmodo back in March. “The President really has the unchecked power to put another app on this list.”