Popular Chinese App, TikTok are said to have concluded plans to drag the administration of President Donald Trump of the United States of America to court, over their attempt to ban the Chinese App from the United States.
According to reports, the Chinese App, TikTok confirmed that it plans to file a lawsuit challenging U.S. President Trump’s Aug. 6 executive order that would effectively ban TikTok unless it is sold to an American buyer.
TikTok expects to sue the administration this coming week.
President Trump alleged that TikTok “continues to threaten the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States” based on the possibility that Chinese authorities could force TikTok to divulge user data.
In a statement released Saturday, TikTok said, “Even though we strongly disagree with the [Trump] administration’s concerns, for nearly a year we have sought to engage in good faith to provide a constructive solution.
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.”
TikTok added, “To ensure that the rule of law prevails and that our company and users are treated fairly, we have no choice but to challenge the Executive Order through the judicial system.” TikTok has said it has never provided data on U.S. users to China’s government and would refuse to if asked.
Trump’s order prohibits any business dealing with TikTok by any entity (or involving any property) subject to U.S. jurisdiction by Sept. 20. The president issued a similar order targeted at Tencent’s WeChat.
In a separate executive order issued Aug. 14, Trump set a 90-day deadline for Beijing-based ByteDance to divest TikTok’s U.S. assets. That order, also rooted in claims of protecting U.S. national security interests, officially forces the unwinding of ByteDance’s 2017 acquisition of Muiscal.ly, which ByteDance migrated to TikTok the following year.
TikTok’s plans to mount a legal challenge to the Trump ban were first reported by Reuters.