Video sharing platform TikTok is suing the United States government, claiming that a new law that forces its divestment from its Chinese owners violates the First Amendment.

It was expected that TikTok would challenge the law in court, and on Tuesday the company filed a lawsuit with a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C.

President Joe Biden recently signed into law a bill, the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, which would ban the platform if Chinese tech firm ByteDance fails to divest the popular short video app over the next nine months to a year. The company, though, says the order violates the constitutional right to free speech.

“For the first time in history, Congress has enacted a law that subjects a single, named speech platform to a permanent, nationwide ban,” TikTok said in the lawsuit, “and bars every American from participating in a unique online community with more than 1 billion people worldwide.”

The bill was controversial, given the number of U.S. users on TikTok. Lawmakers of both parties are concerned about Chinese Communist Party influence over the platform, as ByteDance is headquartered in Beijing.

Arguments in the lawsuit will be of key interest as they involve balancing free-speech concerns with national security.

TikTok argues that the law not only violates its free-speech rights, but also the rights of millions of its users. It claims that the U.S. government has not met its burden to show that national security concerns sufficiently outweigh free-speech rights.

“There is no question: the Act will force a shutdown of TikTok by January 19, 2025,” the lawsuit states, “silencing the 170 million Americans who use the platform to communicate in ways that cannot be replicated elsewhere.”

Crucially, the lawsuit could delay implementation of the law. That is because judicial review of the challenge would essentially pause its implementation as the courts determine the validity of the legal challenge.

TikTok is also arguing that the law itself is tantamount to banning the platform because the timetable is far too short to allow ByteDance to divest prior to the deadline set out in the legislation.

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The legislation in question was overwhelmingly bipartisan, with both Republicans and Democrats voting to send the bill to Biden’s desk. The bill passed in a 360-58 vote in the House and 79-18 vote in the Senate.

The Washington Examiner reached out to TikTok for comment on the lawsuit.