TikTok Says to Sue Over Trump Crackdown

Video app TikTok on Saturday will contest the Trump administration's ban on the influential Chinese-owned company, which Washington suspects of being a national security threat.

As tensions escalate between the world's two largest economies, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order on August 6 to give Americans 45 days to avoid doing business with TikTok's Chinese parent company ByteDance — effectively setting a deadline for the possible forced selling of viral video to a US firm, reports AFP.

“Even though we strongly disagree with the Administration’s concerns, for nearly a year we have sought to engage in good faith to provide a constructive solution. What we encountered instead was a lack of due process as the Administration paid no attention to facts and tried to insert itself into negotiations between private businesses,” TikTok said in a statement.

“To ensure that the rule of law is not discarded and that our company and users are treated fairly, we have no choice but to challenge the Executive Order through the judicial system,” it said, adding it expects to file its suit next week.

TikTok's kaleidoscopic streams of brief video clips show everything from hair-dye tips to dance moves and everyday jokes. It's been distributed 175 million times in the US and more than a billion times worldwide.

Trump argues that TikTok may be used by China to map the movements of government workers, create data on individuals for ransom, and conduct corporate espionage.

The company also said that it has never sent any US consumer details to the Chinese government, and Beijing has introduced Trump's campaign as a diplomatic one.

US intervention comes ahead of the November 3 elections in which Trump, who is behind his opponent Joe Biden in the polls, is pushing hard with a more strident anti-Beijing line.

– Trump and China –

Trump has steadily adopted a confrontational posture against China, confronting it on political, military and economic fronts.

Soon after Trump revealed his actions against TikTok in early August, the United States placed restrictions on Hong Kong's chief over the Chinese protection clampdown after last year's pro-democracy protests.

Microsoft and Oracle are possible suitors for TikTok’s US operations.

Reports also suggested that Oracle — whose founder Larry Ellison earned millions in Trump's campaign funds — was considering an offer for TikTok's activities in the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

The Trump administration also allowed ByteDance a 90-day divest duration in TikTok until the device was blocked in the United States.

Measures are shifting away from the long-established American dream of a free, accessible internet, which may encourage other countries to follow suit, experts told AFP earlier.

“It’s really an attempt to fragment the internet and the global information society along US and Chinese lines, and shut China out of the information economy,” Milton Mueller, a Georgia Tech professor and founder of the Internet Governance Project said previously.