TikTok launches legal action with the Trump administration over US ban
TikTok is suing the Trump administration for threatening to ban the app in the United States.
An executive order signed by President Trump is set to prohibit transactions with TikTok’s owner ByteDance from mid-September onwards.
Washington officials were concerned the company could pass data from its 100 million American users to the Chinese government, although ByteDance has denied doing this.
“Now is the time for us to act,” an official TikTok blog post reads. “We do not take suing the government lightly, however we feel we have no choice but to take action to protect our rights, and the rights of our community and employees.”
“We strongly disagree with the Administration’s position that TikTok is a national security threat and we have articulated these objections previously.”
ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, may be forced to sell the app to the highest bidder in less than a month in order to continue operating in North America, and is reportedly in talks with Microsoft and Oracle.
Read next: “[Black people] are asking for fairness, and we are asking for justice”: Cardi B talks to Joe Biden.
