Ever since US President Donald Trump issued executive orders to ban TikTok, tensions between the Trump administration and the Chinese company have been high. But now, TikTok has officially announced that it will sue the Trump administration.
On August 6th, 2020, President Trump took action against TikTok. He issued an executive order that will ban all transactions with the short-video platform, as well as its parent company, ByteDance, starting September 20th.
The following week, Trump issued another executive order giving ByteDance 90 days to sell its US assets. Since then, first, Microsoft opened talks to acquire TikTok. And then Oracle also expressed an interest.
While TikTok can’t take legal action against the order to sell TikTok, it can sue the Trump administration for barring TikTok transactions.
In the impending lawsuit, TikTok will claim that the August 6th executive order is too dependent on the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. TikTok argues that this dependency denies TikTok to a proper legal proceeding.
TikTok spokesperson, Josh Gartner, confirmed that TikTok will take legal action against the Trump administration. In a statement to The Verge, Gartner explains TikTok’s motive behind the lawsuit, saying:
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. To ensure that the rule of law is not discarded and that our company and users are treated fairly, we have no choice but to challenge the Executive Order through the judicial system.
President Trump has repeatedly expressed his concerns about TikTok, calling it a national security threat. TikTok also hopes to address these claims during the lawsuit, as well as remove the negative label attached to the app.
The drama between TikTok and the Trump administration continues. In the end, TikTok’s uncertain future lies in the hands of its buyer, whoever that ends up being, and the outcome of its upcoming lawsuit.
TikTok isn’t the only app that the US has threatened to ban. Other Chinese apps, like WeChat, have also been accused of stealing user data, which is definitely an issue worth investigating.