On Tuesday, TikTok and its Chinese parent company ByteDance filed a high-stakes lawsuit in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. The suit was filed against the U.S. government, challenging a new law that would force ByteDance to sell TikTok's American operations or face a nationwide ban on the popular social media app.

At the heart of the legal battle is the claim that this law, known as the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversaries Act, violates the First Amendment rights of TikTok's 102 million users in the United States.

In their lawsuit, TikTok and ByteDance argue that the law's mandate to divest the app's U.S. business within one year or face a complete shutdown is an unconstitutional infringement on free speech and expression.

They contend that TikTok has become a vital platform for Americans to share content, communicate and engage in public discourse (as well as meme-worthy cat videos). Banning the app, they argue, would deprive users of their ability to participate in this digital town square in which they exercise their fundamental free speech rights.

As to this first part of their claim, it’s pretty tough to make a cogent legal argument that TikTok/ByteDance........

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