Washington:

TikTok and its Chinese parent company ByteDance sued in U.S. federal court on Tuesday seeking to block a law signed by President Joe Biden that would force the divestiture of the short video app used by 170 million Americans or ban its use.

The companies filed their lawsuit in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, arguing that the law violates the U.S. Constitution on a number of grounds including running afoul of First Amendment free speech protections. The law, signed by Biden on April 24, gives ByteDance until Jan. 19 to sell TikTok or face a ban.

“For the first time in history, Congress has enacted a law that subjects a single, named speech platform to a permanent, nationwide ban,” the companies said in the lawsuit.

The White House and U.S. Justice Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The lawsuit said the divestiture “is simply not possible: not commercially, not technologically, not legally. … There is no question: the Act (law) 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 is the latest move by TikTok to keep ahead of efforts to shut it down in the United States as companies such as Snap and Meta look to capitalize on TikTok’s political uncertainty to take away advertising dollars from their rival.

Driven by worries among U.S. lawmakers that China could access data on Americans or spy on them with the app, the measure was passed overwhelmingly in Congress just weeks after being introduced. TikTok has denied that it has or ever would share U.S. user data, accusing American lawmakers in the lawsuit of advancing “speculative” concerns

The law prohibits app stores from offering TikTok and bars internet hosting services from supporting TikTok unless ByteDance divests TikTok by Jan. 19.

The suit said the Chinese government “has made clear that it would not permit a divestment of the recommendation engine that is a key to the success of TikTok in the United States.” The companies asked the D.C. Circuit to block U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland from enforcing the law and says “prospective injunctive relief” is warranted.

TikTok has spent $2 billion to implement measures to protect the data of U.S. users and made additional commitments in a 90-page draft National Security Agreement developed through negotiations with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), according to the lawsuit.

That pact included TikTok agreeing to a “shut-down option” that would give the U.S. government the authority to suspend TikTok in the United States if it violates some obligations, according to the suit.

In August 2022, according to the lawsuit, CFIUS stopped engaging in meaningful discussions about the agreement, and in March 2023 CFIUS “insisted that ByteDance would be required to divest the U.S. TikTok business.” CFIUS is an interagency committee, chaired by the U.S. Treasury Department, that reviews foreign investments in American businesses and real estate that implicate national security concerns.

Biden could extend the Jan. 19 deadline by three months if he determines ByteDance is making progress.

In 2020, then-President Donald Trump was blocked by the courts in his bid to ban TikTok and Chinese-owned WeChat, a unit of Tencent, in the United States. Trump, the Republican candidate challenging the Democrat Biden in the Nov. 5 U.S. election, has since reversed course, saying he does not support a ban but that security concerns need to be addressed.

Many experts have questioned whether any potential buyer possesses the financial resources to buy TikTok and if China and U.S. government agencies would approve a sale.

To move the TikTok source code to the United States “would take years for an entirely new set of engineers to gain sufficient familiarity,” according to the lawsuit.

The four-year battle over TikTok is a significant front in the ongoing conflict over the internet and technology between the United States and China. In April, Apple said China had ordered it to remove Meta Platforms’ WhatsApp and Threads from its App Store in China over Chinese national security concerns.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

The U.S. Senate set up a likely court showdown over the scope of TikTok’s free speech protections under the U.S. Constitution when it approved a bill on Tuesday to ban the social media platform from app stores unless its Chinese owner sells it.

While the bill itself does not say anything about speech, the proposal has alarmed civil rights advocates, TikTok and users of the app, all of whom could sue if President Joe Biden signs it into law as expected.

Legal experts said opponents of the law could argue it infringes free speech by preventing users from expressing themselves and businesses from using the app to promote products.

TikTok has already beaten a similar attempt to ban its use in the U.S. state of Montana, although the state is appealing that ruling.

Jameel Jaffer, executive director of the Knight First Amendment Institute, called the U.S. legislative effort “censorship – plain and simple” in a letter that his group and others sent to lawmakers in March.

A court that agrees with that assessment would apply strict scrutiny, meaning the government would have to prove it has not violated speech rights under the Constitution’s First Amendment and that there are no lesser ways to achieve the government’s national security goals.

The bill’s promoters have argued it has nothing to do with speech but merely regulates a commercial activity by requiring TikTok’s Beijing-based owner ByteDance to sell the U.S. operations within about a year, denying China easy access to users’ data.

The bill sets the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit as the venue for any legal challenges. TikTok could ask the court to preliminarily bar enforcement of the law while it pursues a case contending the measure is unlawful and should be struck down.

Legal experts said if the government winds up fighting a First Amendment case under the strict scrutiny standard, it must prove national security or some other compelling government interest is at stake. It will also have to prove the law was “narrowly tailored” to address that particular issue.

Critics spot a weakness in the government’s potential case on this point: Washington thus far has seemed unconcerned about abuse of users’ data by other social media platforms.

Plenty of companies such as Meta Platforms’ Facebook collect, store and share users’ data, but the government has never treated that activity as a national security threat or enacted data protections.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation’s David Greene said that if the U.S. were really concerned about China and data privacy, it would push legislation that applies to all social media companies, not just TikTok.

The government would need to convince a court the measure is not a limitation on speech but a regulation of a commercial transaction and a way to protect national security.

The government would argue that TikTok could continue to operate and U.S. users continue to use it, just not under Chinese ownership, so the law’s effect on speech was “incidental” and permitted.

In November, a U.S. federal judge in Montana blocked Montana’s effort to ban TikTok within the state. TikTok and some users filed a pair of First Amendment lawsuits challenging the proposed ban, which had been set to take effect in January.

U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy issued a preliminary injunction halting the state’s ban, saying it “violates the Constitution in more ways than one” and “oversteps state power.” Montana, backed by Virginia and 18 other states, is challenging the order on appeal.

“The law is not narrowly tailored, nor does it leave open any alternative channels for targeted communication of information,” Molloy wrote.

TikTok is due to respond to the Montana appeal by April 29.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)