Eight TikTok creators file suit against US govt to stop law that would ban app

Eight TikTok creators have filed a lawsuit against the United States’ government over the enactment of the “Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications” law, which seeks to outlaw the well-known social media platform.

The suit filed by the eight disgruntled creators argued that TikTok is unique from other social media apps and that creating TikTok videos is “its own form of expression.”

The filing, which is similar to the company’s own challenge to the law in that it leans on First Amendment arguments, also stressed that the measure would strip them of their livelihoods and creative outlets.

“These characteristics—intrinsic to the medium and derived from the system TikTok uses to curate content for each user—give TikTok a distinct culture and identity,” the lawsuit says. “Creating videos on TikTok (‘TikToks’) is thus its own form of expression, and content expressed through TikTok may convey a different meaning than content expressed elsewhere.”

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The lawsuit comes days after TikTok and ByteDance finally filed a complaint and lawsuit against the US government, which was forwarded to the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, initiating their legal battle.

In the lawsuit, TikTok and ByteDance say the law “would allow the government to decide that a company may no longer own and publish the innovative and unique speech platform it created. If Congress can do this, it can circumvent the First Amendment by invoking national security and ordering the publisher of any individual newspaper or website to sell to avoid being shut down.”

The law will “silence the 170 million Americans who use the platform to communicate in ways that cannot be replicated elsewhere,” TikTok and ByteDance alleged.

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