The petition in federal court argues that carving off the American portion of the social video network “is not commercially, technologically, or legally feasible,” and the law amounts to a violation of free speech rights for the platform used by 170 million Americans. (The Logic)

Talking point: The bill Congress passed in March requires China-based ByteDance to sell its U.S. subsidiary or shut it down by next January. ByteDance argues that U.S. TikTok is tightly integrated with the rest of the company and network (and its billion-plus global users) and not viable on its own. Concerns about TikTok’s potential use as a surveillance tool by Beijing have led numerous jurisdictions, including Canada and all its Five Eyes allies, to bar it from government-owned devices. In concert with the U.S. government, ByteDance has spent more than US$2 billion to build safeguards against abuse by foreign governments, the suit says, and “Congress tossed this tailored agreement aside.”