TikTok sues Biden administration over law forcing ban or sale from ByteDance

TikTok is suing the US government after Joe Biden signed a bill that would force its Chinese owners to sell the popular app or face a ban in the US.

The platform’s parent company ByteDance has accused the Biden administration of violating First Amendment rights by allegedly trying to “silence the 170 million Americans” who use the social media application.

The bill was overwhelmingly passed by Congress and signed by Biden on April 24, giving ByteDance until January 19 to sell TikTok or face a ban. The reason was concerns that China could use the app to access the data of American users.

ByteDance has now filed a lawsuit in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia in an attempt to block the bill, arguing that divestiture is “simply not possible: not commercially, not technologically, not legally.”

“There is no doubt about it: the 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 said .

The bill was overwhelmingly passed by Congress and signed by Biden on April 24, giving ByteDance until January 19 to sell TikTok or face a ban.

According to the ByteDance lawsuit, the Chinese government has “made it clear that it would not allow a divestiture of the recommendation engine that is a key to TikTok’s success in the United States”

Shou Zi Chew, who has been TikTok’s CEO since 2021, was spotted enjoying the Met Gala in New York City with his wife Vivian Kao on Monday evening.

The 41-year-old Singaporean businessman was honorary chairman of the evening, together with Loewe creative director Jonathan Anderson.

The new law that threatens his business bans app stores from offering the TikTok app, while internet hosting services cannot support it unless ByteDance divests it.

According to the lawsuit, the Chinese government “has made it clear that it would not allow a divestiture of the recommendation engine that is a key to TikTok’s success in the United States.”

It also said TikTok has spent $2 billion to implement measures to protect U.S. users’ data 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 States (CFIUS).

That agreement included TikTok agreeing to a “shutdown option that would give the U.S. government the authority to suspend TikTok in the United States if it violates certain obligations,” the lawsuit said.

According to the lawsuit, CFIUS stopped engaging in meaningful discussions about the agreement in August 2022 and in March 2023, CFIUS insisted that ByteDance would be required to divest its U.S. TikTok business.

CFIUS is an interagency committee, chaired by the U.S. Treasury Department, that reviews foreign investments in U.S. companies and real estate that raise national security concerns.

TikTok is suing the US government after Joe Biden signed a bill that will force its owner to sell the popular video-sharing platform used by 170 million Americans. (Image: TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew at the Met Gala on Monday night)

TikTok is suing the US government after Joe Biden signed a bill that will force its owner to sell the popular video-sharing platform used by 170 million Americans

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 court in his attempt to ban TikTok and China’s WeChat, part of Tencent, in the United States.

Trump, the Republican candidate who challenged Democratic President Joe Biden in the Nov. 5 U.S. election, has since changed course, saying he does not support a ban but that security concerns need to be addressed.

Many experts wonder whether a potential buyer has the financial resources to buy TikTok and whether Chinese and U.S. government agencies would approve a sale.

Moving the TikTok source code to the United States “would take years for an entirely new group of engineers to gain sufficient prominence,” the lawsuit said.

The four-year battle over TikTok is a major front in the ongoing conflict over the internet and technology between the United States and China.

In April, Apple said China had ordered the company to remove WhatsApp and Threads from Meta Platforms from the App Store in China due to Chinese national security concerns.