Close

TikTok to Sue the U.S. Government as Early as on Tuesday

August 9, 2020 9:22 am

BEIJING (PingWest) — China’s viral short video app TikTok is planning to sue the Trump Administration as soon as on Tuesday to challenge President Trump’s executive order banning the app from operating in the U.S., according to NPR, citing a person directly involved in the forthcoming suit but was not allowed to speak for the company.

The lawsuit will be filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California, where TikTok's American operations are based, citing the person.

It will argue that President Trump’s action is unconstitutional because it failed to give the short video app a chance to respond and that the administration's national security justification for the order is baseless, according to the report.

NPR reported that "It's based on pure speculation and conjecture.” ”The order has no findings of fact, just reiterates rhetoric about China that has been kicking around."

Chinese-owned TikTok made an announcement Friday that the issued executive order was signed without due process of law, and that the U.S. government “paid no attention to facts, dictated terms of an agreement without going through standard legal process, and tried to insert itself into negotiations between private business.”

Trump signed an executive order on Thursday prohibiting U.S. residents and companies from “transactions” with TikTok and popular IM app WeChat owned by Tencent Holdings, effective in 45 days, with no definition of what those transactions included.