TikTok files court challenge to US law that could lead to ban

TikTok and its parent company ByteDance challenged the US government in a legal filing on May 7 over a new law forcing the sale or ban of the social media giant, igniting a high-stakes court battle in Washington that could prove to be an existential fight for one of the world’s most popular apps. President Biden signed a law in April demanding that China-based ByteDance sell TikTok within a year or be banned across the United States, arguing that the Chinese government could use the app to spy on Americans or secretly shape public opinion. But the companies in their petition for review contend that the law violates the First Amendment rights of its 170 million US accounts in an “extraordinary and unconstitutional assertion of power” based on vaguely expressed national security concerns.