TikTok has announced it plans to sue the US government over a new law that would ban the app nationwide unless ByteDance, its Chinese parent company, divests itself from the app.
According to reporting from the BBC, TikTok called the newly passed act an «extraordinary intrusion on free speech rights» of its 170 million American users.
It says the act is based on «speculative concerns» with little basis in fact, and it has asked the DC Circuit Court of Appeals to block the ban.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre referred questions to the US Justice Department, but did say the law was «not a ban.
It is a divestment». ByteDance, TikTok's parent company said it has no plans to sell the business, setting up the very real possibility that TikTok will be banned in the US.