A group of TikTok creators said Tuesday they filed suit in US federal court seeking to block a law signed by President Biden that would force the divestiture of the short video app used by 170 million Americans or ban it, saying it has had “a profound effect on American life.”
The TikTok users suing include a Texas Marine Corps veteran who sells his ranch products, a Tennessee woman selling cookies and discussing parenting, a North Dakota college coach who makes sports commentary videos and a recent college graduate in North Carolina who advocates for the rights of sexual-assault survivors.
“Although they come from different places, professions, walks of life, and political persuasions, they are united in their view that TikTok provides them a unique and irreplaceable means to express themselves and form community,” said the lawsuit.
Davis Wright Tremaine LLP, a law firm representing the creators, provided a copy of the lawsuit to Reuters it said had been filed in the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
The White House declined comment. A Justice Department spokesperson said the TikTok law “addresses critical national security concerns in a manner that is consistent with the First Amendment and other constitutional limitations. We look forward to defending the legislation in court.”
The suit, which seeks injunctive relief, says the law threatens free speech and “promises to shutter a discrete medium of communication that has become part of American life.”
Last week, TikTok and its Chinese parent company ByteDance filed a similar lawsuit, arguing that the law violates the US Constitution on a number of grounds including running afoul of First Amendment free speech protections.
TikTok creators filed a similar suit in 2020 to block a prior attempt to block the app under then President Donald Trump, and also sued last year in Montana asking a court to block a state ban. In both instances, courts blocked the bans.
The law, signed by Biden on April 24, gives ByteDance until Jan. 19 to sell TikTok or face a ban. The White House has said it wants to see Chinese-based ownership ended on national security grounds but not a ban on TikTok.
The law prohibits app stores like Apple, and Alphabet’s Google, from offering TikTok and bars internet hosting services from supporting TikTok unless ByteDance divests TikTok.
The suit says to the extent the government may claim the law is needed to protect Americans data, “it has tried that strategy before and lost.” The suit says “the concerns are speculative, and even if they were not, they could be addressed with legislation much more narrowly tailored to any purported concern.”
The TikTok lawsuit said last week the divestiture “is simply not possible: not commercially, not technologically, not legally … There is no question: the Act (law) will force a shutdown of TikTok by January 19, 2025.”
Driven by worries among US lawmakers that China could access data on Americans or spy on them with the app, the measure was passed overwhelmingly in Congress just weeks after being introduced.
The four-year battle over TikTok is a significant front in the ongoing conflict over the internet and technology between the United States and China. In April, Apple said China had ordered it to remove Meta Platform’s WhatsApp and Threads from its App Store in China over Chinese national security concerns.
Biden could extend the Jan. 19 deadline by three months if he determines ByteDance is making progress.
Eight people have been killed in US military strikes on three boats it has accused of smuggling drugs in the Pacific Ocean.
The US military’s Southern Command said the strikes targeted “designated terrorist organisations” killing three “narco-terrorists” in the first vessel, two in the second boat and three in the third.
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No evidence the vessels were involved in drug trafficking has been given, but a video showing the strikes on the boats was posted on social media.
Southern Command added that defence secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the strikes, and claimed intelligence confirmed the vessels were using known drug trafficking routes and engaged in drug trafficking.
Image: The US military said it carried out strikes in the Pacific Ocean on three boats it accused of trafficking drugs. Pic: X/@Southcom
Image: One of the boats targeted during the strikes. Pic: X/@Southcom
It is unclear where the vessels were from, but the strikes mark the latest in Donald Trump‘s “war” with drug cartels, which has also seen vessels targeted in the Caribbean Sea, including near Venezuela.
Over the past several months, the US has been carrying out a large-scale military build-up in the southern Caribbean, with the stated goal of combating drug trafficking.
In its first lethal strike on 2 September, the White House posted on X that it had conducted a strike against “narcoterrorists” shipping fentanyl to the US, without providing evidence of the alleged crime.
Sky’s Data & Forensics unit last week verified that in the four months up to 10 December, 23 boats were targeted in 22 strikes, killing 87 people.
The government in Caracas, led by President Nicolas Maduro, who insists the real purpose of the US military operations is to force him out of office, branded the ship’s seizure a “blatant theft” and an “act of international piracy”.
On Monday, Mr Trump signed an executive order declaring fentanyl a “weapon of mass destruction”.
The order instructs the State and Treasury departments to pursue the financial assets of and sanctions on financial institutions and groups involved in fentanyl trafficking.
It also calls for greater co-operation between the Pentagon and the Justice Department on fentanyl and drugtrafficking issues.
The latest strikes on vessels allegedly trafficking drugs come on the eve of briefings on Capitol Hill for all members of Congress as questions mount over the Trump administration’s military actions.
Mr Hegseth, secretary of state Marco Rubio, and other top national security officials are expected to provide closed-door briefings for politicians in the House and Senate.
The United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) launched a series of consultations on proposed rules for digital asset markets, marking the next phase in the government’s effort to establish a comprehensive regulatory framework for crypto assets.
The proposals, published across three consultation papers, cover crypto trading platforms, intermediaries, staking, lending and borrowing, market abuse, disclosures and decentralized finance (DeFi). The FCA said consultation responses will be open until Feb. 12, 2026.
The regulator said the proposals aim to support innovation while ensuring that consumers understand the risks associated with crypto investment. It added that regulations should not eliminate risks entirely, but should ensure that participants operate responsibly and transparently.
“Our goal is to have a regime that protects consumers, supports innovation and promotes trust,” said David Geale, the FCA’s executive director for payments and digital finance, adding that industry feedback will help shape the final rules.
From advertisements to market structure
The consultations mark the next step in the UK’s push toward full “market structure” rules for crypto, moving beyond earlier requirements focused on financial promotions and Anti-Money Laundering compliance.
Under the proposals, exchanges would face clearer standards regarding admissions, disclosures and trading integrity. In addition, measures against insider trading and market manipulation would align crypto markets more closely with traditional finance.
The consultation also focuses on crypto staking services. The regulator seeks views on how firms should disclose risks when offering yield-bearing products that lock up customer assets. Crypto lending and borrowing are also included in the consultation, with proposed safeguards intended to protect borrowers and lenders.
Another element is decentralized finance (DeFi). The FCA consults on whether DeFi activities, including trading, lending and borrowing without intermediaries, should be subject to the same regulatory expectations as traditional financial services.
While consultations are ongoing, Geale reminded users that the assets are currently unregulated.
“While we work closely with partners to deliver the UK’s crypto rules, people should remember crypto is largely unregulated – except for financial promotions and financial crime purposes,” Geale warned.
The consultation was launched the day after the UK government announced its plan to introduce a bill to extend the country’s financial sector laws to crypto assets by 2027.
On Monday, the UK Finance Ministry reportedly announced that it will introduce legislation to bring crypto companies under existing financial laws by October 2027. This would put crypto under the oversight of the FCA.
UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves said bringing crypto into the regulatory perimeter is a “crucial step” in securing the UK’s position as a financial center in the digital age.
Slope, a lending startup that uses artificial intelligence to vet businesses, is partnering with Amazon starting Tuesday to provide a reusable line of credit to Amazon sellers, backed by a JPMorgan Chase credit facility, the company told CNBC exclusively.
The new relationship means eligible U.S. Amazon vendors can apply for and access capital directly through their Amazon Seller accounts with real-time approvals.
Slope was co-founded by CEO Lawrence Lin Murata, who said said he saw the ups and downs of running a small business while he was growing up in São Paulo.
Lin Murata helped his parents at their family’s toy shop, which they’ve been running for more than three decades. As he gained more insight into the finances of the business, he said he realized that cash flow was a large pain point for his parents and other small businesses.
That led him to start Slope, an AI-powered lending platform backed by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and JPMorgan Chase, with co-founder Alice Deng.
“Leveraging AI, we’re able to underwrite these businesses, and we’re able to handle all the complexity of assessing the risk for a business,” Lin Murata said. “At the same time, [we’re] providing a very easy, real-time experience to them.”
The lines of credit will start at an 8.99% APR, according to Slope, and require vendors to be in business for at least one year with more than $100,000 in annual revenue. Once approved, Amazon sellers can draw from the line as needed and choose a term ranging from three months to a year to align repayment with their inventory cycle. Scope did not disclose the financial aspects of its deal with Amazon.
“Most people don’t realize that sellers, independent sellers, are kind of the backbone of Amazon and e-commerce in general,” Deng told CNBC. “More than 60% of Amazon’s sales are driven by independent sellers.”
Deng said Slope is filling a gap with the new partnership. Currently, Amazon sellers can use some third parties to access capital, though Deng said those initiatives are more focused on smaller sellers, while Slope is focused on mature sellers, some of whom reach hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue and require bank-grade financing.
Deng said when Amazon did its own lending around four years ago, the total addressable market was between $1 billion and $2 billion. With Slope taking over the program, the company expects that number to grow.
“We’re excited about our work with Slope, which expands the financing tools available to Amazon selling partners,” an Amazon spokesperson told CNBC. “Whether they are just starting out or looking to grow, access to sufficient capital is a critical need for small business owners, and we’re always evaluating new ways to empower sellers to thrive in the Amazon store.”
With Slope’s new deal, sellers can take a few minutes directly on Amazon Seller Central to apply for capital and get approved almost instantly, using proprietary Amazon performance data and Slope’s in-house large language model, Lin Murata said.
“That is one of the reasons why we’re able to give a more compelling offer than if you were outside of the Amazon dashboard,” Lin Murata said. “And then we give real-time decisions, so we analyze Amazon performance, data, and cash flow in real time.”
It’s a process that the Slope co-founders said is easier, faster and more integrated than having to apply for loans at banks as a small business. With the granular data that Amazon provides, like a breakdown of sales by product, they said the AI model is able to make a more informed decision on financing than a bank would based on overall financial documents.
With the new deal, Amazon joins a growing slate of Slope’s customers, which already include Samsung, Alibaba, Ikea and more.
Deng and Lin Murata said the company has trialed the new Amazon integration, and though the trial has been live for just a few weeks, the pair said it’s seen significant demand and applications growing 300% week over week.
“Going back to the initial inspiration of my parents, I think we want to be the credit intelligence layer for these businesses,” Lin Murata said. “Ultimately, what we’re really doing is helping these businesses grow by giving them fair, affordable, fast and very easy access to different forms of financing.”