By Natalie Sherman, BBC News
TikTok says the US has put forward only "speculative concerns" to justify the measure and asked the court to stop it. Photo: AFP
TikTok has filed a lawsuit aiming to block a United States law which would ban the video app in the country unless it is sold by its Chinese parent company.
In the filing, the social media company called the act an "extraordinary intrusion on free speech rights" of the company and its 170 million American users.
It said the US had put forward only "speculative concerns" to justify the measure and asked the court to stop it.
President Joe Biden signed the bill into law last month, citing national security justifications.
It followed years of debate in Washington, which had claimed that TikTok's Chinese ownership raised the risk that data on US users could fall into the hands of the Chinese government or be used for propaganda.
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TikTok had maintained it was independent, while parent company ByteDance had said it had no plans to sell the business.
The Chinese government had criticised the law as US "bullying" of a foreign firm and signalled it would oppose a sale.
Under the US law, app stores would be barred from offering TikTok in the US starting in January 2025, unless parent company ByteDance found a buyer.
In the filing, TikTok said that requirement was "simply not possible: not commercially, not technologically, not legally. And certainly not on the 270-day timeline required by the Act".
TikTok had previously said it planned to contest the law in the courts.
- BBC