TikTok has said it will reach a court challenge for the Trump administration’s collapse on the popular Chinese-owned service, which accuses Washington of a national security threat.
Amid tensions between the world’s two largest economies, on August 6, Donald Trump signed an executive order giving Americans 45 days to do business with ByteDance’s Chinese parent company TikTok – effectively setting a deadline for a potential push sale of the viral video sensation to a US company.
“Even though we do not agree with the concerns of the administration, we have been seeking for almost a year to enter into good faith to provide a constructive solution,” TikTok said in a statement.
“What we encountered instead was a lack of due process, because the administration did not pay attention to facts and tried to involve itself in negotiations between private companies.
“To ensure that the rule of law is not disregarded and that our company and users are treated fairly, we have no choice but to challenge the executive order through the justice system.”
ByteDance said on Saturday night that it would file the lawsuit against the Trump administration Monday.
TikTok’s short video clip feeds cover everything from hair dye tutorials to dance routines and daily life jokes. It has been downloaded 175m times in the US and more than a billion times in the world.
Trump claims that TikTok could be used by China to track down the locations of federal employees, build files on people for extortion, and conduct corporate espionage.
The company has said it has never provided US user data to the Chinese government, and Beijing has blamed Trump’s crackdown as a political blast.
The US measures come in the run-up to the November 3 election in which Trump, who is behind his rival Joe Biden in the election, is pushing hard for an increasingly stringent message against Beijing.
Trump has increasingly taken a confrontational stance on China, challenging it on trade, military and economic fronts.
Shortly after Trump announced his steps against TikTok in early August, the US imposed sanctions on the Hong Kong leader over Chinese security following last year’s pro-democracy demonstrations.
Microsoft and Oracle are potential suitors for TikTok’s US operations.
Reports say Oracle – whose chairman Larry Ellison has raised millions in campaign funds for Trump – is awaiting a bid for TikTok’s operations in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
The Trump administration has also given ByteDance a 90-day deadline to distribute in TikTok before the app is banned in the United States.
The measures move away from the long-held American ideal of a global, open Internet and could invite other countries to follow suit, analysts told AFP earlier.
“It’s really an attempt to fragment the Internet and the global information society along American and Chinese lines, and to shut China out of the information economy,” said Milton Mueller, a professor at Georgia Tech and founder of the Internet Governance Project earlier.
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