On Tuesday, Apple just announced the new iPad Air and iPad Pro, heating up the battle between iPad and Galaxy Tab. However, that’s not the only battle going down. There is going to be a legal battle, as TikTok is suing the U.S. government over the looming ban. This comes after the news of a potential TikTok ban in Europe.
To catch you up, the U.S. government has been scrutinizing the video-sharing app TikTok over the fact that it stores American users’ information in China. Recently, U.S. President Joe Biden signed a bill that basically forces TikTok out of the U.S. unless its parent company, ByteDance, divests in it and sells it to another company. The bill was passed, and ByteDance has until January next year to comply. This is an ultimatum that the CEO of TikTok has been vocally against.
Now, TikTok is suing the U.S. government over the potential ban
This is probably one of the biggest cases over the past couple of years. It’s right up there with the massive antitrust lawsuit that Google is going through (which is currently wrapping up) and the lawsuit proposed by the New York Times against OpenAI and Microsoft.
According to the report, the lawsuit states that for the “first time in history, Congress has enacted a law that subjects a single, named speech platform to a permanent, Nationwide ban, and bars every American from participating in a unique online community with more than 1 billion people worldwide,”. Also, TikTok states that the ban is “unconstitutional.”
So, TikTok is not going down without a fight. It’s obvious that the U.S. market makes up a large part of TikTok’s user base, and the company does not want to lose it.
The company also states that being sold to a different company would be more trouble than it’s worth. It states that it will have to move millions of lines of code from ByteDance to a new owner. Also, TikTok states that the Chinese government would not allow the sale of TikTok. This basically means that ByteDance will have no other option than to remove TikTok from the US.
This lawsuit was just recently filed, so we have absolutely no idea where it’s going to sway. More information about this case will come forth as time goes on.