(AFP): Popular Chinese-owned Video app TikTok has filed a lawsuit against the United States government challenging the Trump Administration’s efforts to ban the company’s American operations.
Earlier on August 6, Trump signed an executive order giving Americans 45 days to stop doing business with TikTok’s Chinese parent company ByteDance.
In a blog post, TikTok argued that the ban prevents the company from due process, as guaranteed by the Fifth Amendment. “Today we are filing a complaint in federal court challenging the administration’s efforts to ban TikTok in the US,” the company added.
TikTok further said that President Donald Trump’s executive order ignored the company’s efforts to prove it doesn’t share data with the Chinese government and isn’t a national security threat.
“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,” TikTok said.
The suit also stated, “ With the Executive Order threatening to bring a ban on our US operations — eliminating the creation of 10,000 American jobs and irreparably harming the millions of Americans who turn to this app for entertainment, connection and legitimate livelihoods that are vital especially during the pandemic — we simply have no choice.”
The app has been downloaded 175 million times in the US and more than a billion times around the world. Trump claims TikTok could be used by China to track the locations of federal employees and conduct corporate espionage.
The company had said it has never provided any US user data to the Chinese government, and Beijing has blasted Trump’s crackdown as political. The White House declined to comment on the lawsuit.
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