Content Makers On TikTok Sue US Government To Block App Ban Act

A group of TikTok creators filed a lawsuit in a US federal court (photo: x @tiktokcomms)

JAKARTA - A group of TikTok creators filed a lawsuit in a US federal court on Tuesday, May 14 to block a law signed by US President Joe Biden. The law will force the divestment of a short video app used by 170 million Americans or ban it, arguing that the app has "deep impact on American life."

Plaintiffs in the case include a Texas Marine Corps veteran who sells his farm products, a woman from Tennessee who sells cakes and talks about parenting, a college coach from North Dakota who made video sports comments, and a recent college graduate from North Carolina who advocates for rights for survivors of sexual violence.

"Although they come from different places, professions, backgrounds, and political views, they unite in the view that TikTok provides a unique and irreplaceable way for them to express themselves and form a community," the lawsuit said.

Davis Wright Tremaine LLP, the law firm representing the creators, gave a copy of the lawsuit to Reuters that they had filed at the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.

The White House and the Justice Department have yet to comment immediately on the lawsuit.

The lawsuit, which called on the court to provide assistance injunctions, states that the law threatens free speech and "promises to close special media communications that have become part of American life."

Last week, TikTok and its parent company in China, ByteDance, filed a similar lawsuit, arguing that the law violated the US Constitution for various reasons, including contradicting the protection of free speech in the First Amendment.

TikTok creators previously filed a similar lawsuit in 2020 to block previous attempts made by the then US President, Donald Trump to ban the app, and last year also sued in Montana to block bans in the state. In both cases, the court blocked the ban.

The law signed by Biden on April 24 gives ByteDance until January 19 to sell TikTok or face bans. The White House said it wanted Chinese-based ownership to end on national security grounds but not a ban on TikTok.

The law prohibits app stores like Apple and Google from offering TikTok and prohibits internet hosting services from supporting TikTok unless ByteDance divests its shares on TikTok.

The lawsuit states that if governments claim this law is necessary to protect American citizen data, "they have tried that strategy before and lost." The lawsuit also states "the concern is speculative, and even if not, they could be overcome by a narrower law in accordance with the claimed concerns."

TikTok's lawsuit last week stated that divestment "is impossible: not commercially, not technologically, not legally... No doubt: this law will force the closure of TikTok on January 19, 2025."

Motivated by concerns among US legislators that China could access American citizen data or spy on them with the app, the law was passed with great support in Congress just weeks after its introduction.

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

Biden could extend the January 19 deadline to three months if he determined ByteDance was making progress.