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

TikTok is suing the US Government after Joe Biden signed a bill which 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 Biden's 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. It was driven by concerns that China could use the app to access American users' data.  

ByteDance has now filed a lawsuit in the US 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 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 says. 

Shou Zi Chew, who has been the CEO of TikTok since 2021, was seen with his wife Vivian Kao enjoying New York City's Met Gala on Monday night.

The 41-year-old Singaporean businessman was an honorary chair for the evening along with Loewe creative director Jonathan Anderson. 

The new law which threatens his company prohibits app stores from offering the TikTok app, while barring internet hosting services from supporting it unless ByteDance divests it. 

According to the suit, 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.'

It also said 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). 

That agreement 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 violated 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 Democratic President Joe 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.