A lawsuit looked like a grass-roots effort, but was orchestrated by TikTok and parent company ByteDance, according to people familiar with the effort

In early September, a handful of TikTok stars, most of them in their early 20s, gathered on a Zoom call to tackle a weighty question: Should they take on the U.S. government?
After more discussions, Doug Marland, a 23-year-old comedian from New Jersey, raised his hand to join a lawsuit objecting to the Trump administrations order to ban the app. Two othersmusician Alec Chambers and fashion designer Cosette Rinabalso volunteered.
The…