TikTok sued the U.S. government

The judicial war continues and now TikTok sued the U.S. government to stop the law that would force the social network to sell or stop operating in this country.

The short video platform TikTok, and its owner company, the Chinese ByteDance, have filed a lawsuit on Tuesday against the Department of Justice.

TikTok sued the U.S. government and in seeking to paralyze the law that forces the parent company to sell its app, which would otherwise be banned in U.S. territory.

Notably, TikTok sued the U.S. government; a case that was filed in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals and has been expected since the measure was enacted two weeks ago, alleging that the law is partially unconstitutional.

According to the company, the measure perpetrates an “unprecedented violation” of free speech, protected in the First Amendment of the Constitution.

“For the first time in history, Congress has passed a law that subjects a single platform, cited by name, to a permanent nationwide ban,” the app argues. The new law also “prohibits every American from participating in a single online community made up of more than one billion people worldwide,” according to the company.

TikTok sued the U.S. government: Legal warfare

The TikTok platform sued the U.S. government as it argues that the sale required by the new law is “simply not possible.”

The law passed against TikTok argues national security to justify the need for the app, used by more than 75 million Americans according to the company’s data, to be transferred to other owners or shut down.

TikTok sued the U.S. government and in a rejoinder they argue that a sufficient reason to restrict the right to freedom of expression, and that the government has not demonstrated that such restriction is necessary.

The U.S. Government assures that the law is not intended to force the closure of the application, but its sale, to protect the use that the owners of the platform can make of the data of millions of its citizens.

“What we are focused on when applying this law now is to work for a divestiture in a manner consistent with the intent of the law and with the national security concerns that led to its passage,” said National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan at a press conference.

The new law gives ByteDance nine months to dispose of its most popular creation in the West.

U.S. President Joe Biden can add an extension of three more months, up to a full year, if it appears to him that sufficient progress has been made. But the lawsuit halts that countdown and resets the clock back to zero until the dispute is resolved.

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Among lawmakers’ concerns loom complaints about the addictive behavior the app causes among its users, especially teenagers, and its alleged harmful effects on mental health.

But the main cause is political, as it is Chinese-owned.

TikTok’s critics charge that the Chinese government could easily get its hands on the data of the millions of U.S. users who have downloaded the app.

Or be used for the dissemination of propaganda, false information or some other type of covert influence.

The U.S. government has not publicly presented evidence that the Chinese government has been able to access U.S. citizens’ data held by TikTok.