TikTok plans to sue the Trump administration over the president’s executive order banning the app in the US, and the company may file the lawsuit as early as Tuesday, NPR reported.
According to NPR, the lawsuit will argue the president’s action is unconstitutional because TikTok did not have time to respond. The lawsuit also will allege that the president’s justification for the ban— that the company is a threat to US national security— is baseless, NPR reported.
Under the executive order the president signed Thursday, the US will block all transactions with TikTok parent company ByteDance within 45 days, in order to “address the national emergency with respect to the information and communication technology supply chain.”
“The United States must take aggressive action against the owners of TikTok to protect our national security,” the order reads.
A TikTok spokesperson declined to comment Saturday, and pointed to the company’s blog post on the matter. “We have made clear that TikTok has never shared user data with the Chinese government, nor censored content at its request,” the blog posts states. “This Executive Order risks undermining global businesses’ trust in the United States’ commitment to the rule of law, which has served as a magnet for investment and spurred decades of American economic growth. And it sets a dangerous precedent for the concept of free expression and open markets.”
The company said it planned to “pursue all remedies available to us” to ensure it was treated fairly. It’s not clear how such a ban would affect ongoing talks between Microsoft and ByteDance to acquire TikTok in the US, discussions which Microsoft said would be concluded by September 15th.
