TikTok plans to sue over Trump’s executive order
SAN FRANCISCO >> TikTok plans to sue the U.S. government, the company confirmed Saturday, arguing that President Donald Trump’s moves to block the app had deprived it of due process and claiming it had been unfairly and incorrectly treated as a security threat.
The lawsuit, which the company plans to file this week, would amount to the most public pushback against the U.S. by TikTok, which is owned by the
Chinese internet company ByteDance.
“Even though we strongly disagree with the administration’s concerns, for nearly a year we have sought to engage in good faith to provide a constructive solution,” Josh Gartner, a TikTok spokesman, said in a statement. “What we encountered instead was a lack of due process as the administration paid no attention to facts and tried to insert itself into negotiations between private businesses.”
For weeks, Trump has railed against TikTok and its ties to China, arguing that the app was a national security threat and that it could share data about its users with the Chinese government. On Aug. 6, Trump issued an executive order against TikTok, saying it would ban transactions with the app within 45 days. A week later, he issued a separate executive order giving ByteDance 90 days to divest from its U.S. assets and any data that TikTok had gathered in the U.S.
Trump’s actions have pushed
ByteDance to seek a sale of TikTok’s U.S. operations to a U.S. company. Microsoft and Oracle are among those that have held discussions for such a deal. The companies remain in negotiations for a potential acquisition of TikTok, which has more than 100 million regular users in the U.S.
TikTok, which repeatedly has denied that it shares data with Beijing, previously tried to pacify the Trump administration. But as the White House’s actions escalated, TikTok became more critical of its moves.
Representatives for the White House and the Department of Justice did not respond to requests for comment. Trump’s first executive order against TikTok draws its legal authority from the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, which allows the president to regulate economic transactions in a national emergency. Past administrations have used it to sanction foreign governments as well as terrorists, drug kingpins and hackers.