Catherine Rusoff
Washington – A group of prominent TikTok users sued the federal government on Tuesday over a new law This would force the sale of the popular video-sharing app or lead to its ban in the United States.
The eight users, who together have millions of followers on TikTok, argued that the law signed by President Biden last month violates their First Amendment rights by threatening to shut down a media outlet that has become a prevalent part of American life. They also claimed that the law prevents them from creating and sharing expressive material through their chosen editor, as well as viewing other users’ content.
Among the users involved in the legal fight are Chloe Joy Sexton, from Memphis, Tennessee, who has 2.2 million followers on TikTok; Christopher Townsend of Philadelphia, Mississippi, who has accumulated 2.5 million followers; and Steven King of Buckeye, Arizona, who has 6.8 million followers.
The law, they said, “undermines the nation’s founding principles and the free marketplace of ideas. The First Amendment to our Constitution prevents Congress from censoring speech because of its content, views, editorial practices, or identity of the speakers or editors “.
The lawsuit is the second filed in federal court that challenges the law, called the Protecting Americans from Adversarial Applications Act, and seeks to block the Biden administration from enforcing it. TikTok and its parent company ByteDance filed his own petition in federal court in Washington last week that says the law falls outside the bounds of the First Amendment.
Both petitions were filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, which the law specifies has exclusive jurisdiction over challenges.
O law targeting TikTok was included in a foreign aid package approved by Congress last month and signed by Biden shortly after. The legislation requires Beijing-based ByteDance to sell its stake in TikTok within 270 days, although the president can extend that deadline by 90 days. If ByteDance is unable to divest from the platform within that timeframe, TikTok will lose access to mobile app store services and web hosting providers, effectively isolating it from its estimated 170 million US users.
The move stemmed from concerns raised by U.S. lawmakers and national security officials about TikTok and warnings that the Chinese government could use the app to spy on Americans or weaponize content to influence public opinion.
TikTok’s powerful recommendation algorithm has driven the app’s popularity, and the platform has said in court documents that the Chinese government opposes divestment of the technology. Attempts to cut off ByteDance’s TikTok operations would leave the platform “without access to the recommendation engine that has created a unique style and community that cannot be replicated on any other platform,” the companies said in their separate legal challenge.
The Trump administration attempted to ban the app in 2020, but TikTok and users who challenged former President Donald Trump’s executive order targeting the platform prevailed in federal courts. A blocked judge The Montana law last year, which bans the app in part on First Amendment grounds. More than 30 states and the federal government ban the app on state-issued devices.
Scott MacFarlane contributed to this report
