TikTok Sues to Stop "Forced Shutdown" in US

TikTok and its Chinese parent company ByteDance have filed suit against the US government to challenge the constitutionality of a recently-signed law that the companies say will "force a shutdown of TikTok". The law technically gives the companies the option of selling or spinning off TikTok so it is no longer Chinese-owned. However ByteDance says this "is simply not possible: not commercially, not technologically, not legally." This is in part because 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." The lawsuit says the law runs afoul of First Amendment free speech protections. The law was created over concerns that TikTok holds a large volume of personal data on US citizens, and Chinese companies must cooperate with the Chinese government if it requests access to such data.