TikTok challenges potential US ban in court

Washington: TikTok and its Chinese parent company ByteDance filed a legal challenge against the United States on Tuesday, taking aim at a law that wou...

Washington: TikTok and its Chinese parent company ByteDance filed a legal challenge against the United States on Tuesday, taking aim at a law that would force the app to be sold or face a US ban.

This comes around two weeks after President Joe Biden signed a bill giving TikTok 270 days to find a non-Chinese buyer or face a ban in the country.

The video-sharing platform argues that this was unconstitutional.

"For the first time in history, Congress has enacted a law that subjects a single, named speech platform to a permanent, nationwide ban, and bars every American from participating in a unique online community with more than one billion people worldwide," said the suit by TikTok and ByteDance.

The suit, filed at a federal court in Washington, argued that the move violates the First Amendment, charging that "Congress has made a law curtailing massive amounts of protected speech."