More TikTok content creators are filing a lawsuit against the recently passed legislation forcing the social platform to divest from its parent company or get booted out of the US.
According to The New York Times report, eight content creators, including a Texas Marine Corps veteran, have filed the lawsuit to a US Court of Appeals in Columbia on Tuesday amidst protests to block the legislation.
The group accused the legislation posing to ban the app "threatens to deprive them, and the rest of the country, of this distinctive means of expression and communication."
The group also reasoned that the proposed divestment of TikTok's US division from its parent company ByteDance would be "infeasible, as the company has stated and as the publicly available record confirms."
It can be remembered that the legislation primarily targeted the Beijing-based ByteDance, rather than TikTok alone, to be banned in the US for supposed security concerns from China's intervention.
To avoid the ban on TikTok too, ByteDance is being urged to sell TikTok's US division to an American-owned company.
TikTok Brings Fight on the App's Ban into the Legal Stage
This is the second time a group of content creators have filed a lawsuit to prevent a looming ban on TikTok with the first reported in 2020 amidst then-President Donald Trump's push to ban the app in the country.
Over 170 million Americans are estimated to use the app regularly with seven million businesses operating on the social platform.
TikTok and ByteDance have earlier filed their lawsuit to prevent the law from going into effect, accusing the government of an "unprecedented step of expressly singling out and banning" the app with its congressional power.
In response, a US Department of Justice spokesperson told Reuters that the legislation is "consistent with the First Amendment and other constitutional limitations."
US Politicians at Odds with Younger Voters Amidst TikTok Ban Push
With the passing of the proposed ban on the app close to the upcoming elections, several politicians are currently at odds with many potential voters using TikTok.
US President Joe Biden, who passed the ban bill last April, has been losing potential voters from Gen Zs for his reelection campaign for a second term.
A Harvard survey even indicated that only 49% of Americans aged 18 to 29 are "definitely" planning to vote in the coming elections, 8% lower than the previous presidential elections.
Those who are voting are not entirely confident with Biden as well, claiming that their vote for the president is more in "opposition to Donald Trump becoming president again" than "support for President Biden and his policies.
