The Public Integrity Project, a newly formed anti-corruption group, sued President Donald Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi on March 5, 2026, arguing the administration unlawfully approved a deal allowing TikTok to continue operating in the United States without meeting the requirements of a 2024 divestiture law aimed at limiting Chinese control of the app.
The lawsuit centers on a 2024 federal law requiring TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to complete a “qualified divestiture” or face restrictions on the app’s availability in the United States. The statute was enacted amid bipartisan concerns that TikTok could be used for data collection or influence operations by the Chinese government.
In January 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously upheld the law after TikTok and ByteDance challenged it on First Amendment grounds, according to reporting by The Associated Press.
According to NPR and Reuters, the new lawsuit was filed March 5 in federal court in Washington, D.C. It contends that the administration’s approval of a TikTok restructuring does not satisfy the 2024 law because ByteDance would still retain control over critical elements of the platform. The complaint points in particular to ByteDance’s continued ownership of TikTok’s recommendation algorithm and its ongoing role in managing key U.S. operations.
The suit follows a TikTok agreement announced and finalized in January 2026 that created a majority American-owned U.S. entity to keep the app running domestically. Public reports on the investor lineup vary in emphasis, but NPR identified Oracle, Abu Dhabi’s MGX, Susquehanna International Group and General Atlantic among the investors tied to the U.S. arrangement. Reuters described the deal as a majority American-owned joint venture backed by ByteDance.
Trump celebrated the deal in a social media post, writing, “I am so happy to have helped in saving TikTok!” and praising a “very dramatic, final, and beautiful conclusion,” according to NPR and other contemporaneous coverage.
Brendan Ballou, the Public Integrity Project’s chief executive and a former Justice Department lawyer, said the administration’s approach amounts to an open defiance of the divestiture mandate. “By flaunting the law so publicly, I think the president is trying to send a message that he is quite literally beyond the reach of the courts, beyond the reach of Congress, beyond the reach of the rule of law. And we want to make sure that he isn't,” Ballou told NPR.
The plaintiffs include Zhaocheng Anthony Tan, a software engineer who owns Alphabet stock, and Garrett Reid, a software engineer who owns Meta Platforms stock—companies whose products compete with TikTok, NPR reported. The suit argues the investors were harmed by what it describes as the government’s failure to enforce the statute.
Ballou also pointed to upheaval inside the Justice Department, saying recent changes have weakened federal capacity to pursue public integrity and related investigations. “Right now, the basic infrastructure for prosecuting white collar crime is being dismantled at the Department of Justice,” Ballou said, adding that the group aims to rebuild accountability outside government.
