Social media platform TikTok on Thursday called for a federal court to strike down the law that requires its China-based parent company ByteDance to divest the app or face a ban in January, arguing the federal government refused to engage in settlement negotiations after 2022. President Biden signed the bipartisan legislation into law in April, which gives ByteDance until Jan. 19 to divest TikTok's U.S. assets or face a ban on the short video app used by 170 million Americans.
This law is a radical departure from this country's tradition of championing an open Internet, and sets a dangerous precedent allowing the political branches to target a disfavored speech platform and force it to sell or shut down," ByteDance and TikTok argued in the filing. TikTok claims that any divestiture or separation would take years, even if it's technically possible, and that it would undermine the First Amendment.