TikTok, whether you love it or hate it, has become one of the most popular social media apps to date. However, the U.S. Government passed the Protecting Americans From Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act. The Act requires TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, to sell the app to a U.S. based company, or become banned in nine months. ByteDance, while steadfastly insisting that U.S user data is safe, refuses to sell. In fact, they are choosing the fight the new law by taking the U.S. Government to court.
TikTok and it’s parent company ByteDance are suing the U.S. Government over the law forcing the company to sell, or be banned. The lawsuit claims new law violates the U.S. Constitution and First Amendment rights. The Protecting Americans From Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act is facing heavy scrutiny amongst younger Americans. Some claim that the Act unfairly targets the app, when other social media apps do the same things TikTok is accused of.
“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,” the lawsuit reads. “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.”
The lawsuit continues, “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. 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.”
This is a landmark law, whose passing sets a precedent for how the U.S. Government could react to other apps/websites in the future. The Act’s “national security” argument truly is a slippery slope when it comes to the First Amendment rights. “If Congress can do this, it can circumvent the First Amendment by invoking national security and ordering the publisher of any individual newspaper or website to sell to avoid being shut down,” the lawsuit argues.
We will follow this story and report when more information becomes available.
