[ad_1]
WASHINGTON: The popular video-sharing app TikTok asked an American judge to stop the Trump administration from imposing a ban on the Chinese social network, according to court documents filed late on Friday (September 18).
TikTok and its parent company, ByteDance, filed a complaint in federal court in Washington challenging the recent prohibitive measures of the Trump administration.
The US Department of Commerce issued a ban on Friday to prevent people in the United States from downloading the Chinese-owned messaging app WeChat and TikTok starting on September 20.
READ: US to Ban Sunday’s TikTok and WeChat Downloads
LEE: China criticizes the ‘bullying’ of the United States on Tiktok, WeChat
The ban was introduced for political reasons, TikTok and ByteDance alleged in their complaint. TikTok also said that the ban would violate the company’s First Amendment rights.
US President Donald Trump, who has been locked in a long-running trade dispute with China, issued an executive order on August 6 banning US transactions with the Chinese owners of the messaging app WeChat and TikTok.
READ: ByteDance says China will have to approve its US TikTok deal.
READ: Trump still wants us to get a share of any TikTok sale
Both ByteDance and TikTok are seeking a “declaratory” sentence and order “preliminarily and permanently invalidating and ordering the Bans and the August 6 order,” according to the complaint.
The White House did not immediately respond when contacted by Reuters for comment early Saturday.
TikTok, which has more than 100 million users in the United States, said the ban would “irreversibly destroy TikTok’s business in the United States.”
