#TikTok threatens legal action against Trump’s executive order to ban app

TikTok has threatened legal action following President Trump’s late-night executive order banning transactions beginning in 45 days between American firms and the Chinese parent company of the popular social media app.

In an unsigned blog posted on its website, TikTok said that it was “shocked” by the president’s order, which it said was “issued without any due process.”

“For nearly a year, we have sought to engage with the US government in good faith to provide a constructive solution to the concerns that have been expressed.

“What we encountered instead was that the Administration paid no attention to facts, dictated terms of an agreement without going through standard legal processes, and tried to insert itself into negotiations between private businesses,” the company said.

Trump’s executive order began a 45-day countdown clock for TikTok to find an American company to purchase its US business, or find itself banned from American shores.

The app may have been used for disinformation campaigns that benefit the Chinese Communist Party, and the United States “must take aggressive action against the owners of TikTok to protect our national security,” Trump said in the order.

TikTok in its post says that it “has never shared user data with the Chinese government, nor censored content at its request.”

It argues that Trump’s order “risks undermining global businesses’ trust in the United States’ commitment to the rule of law” as well as “sets a dangerous precedent for the concept of free expression in open markets.”

Microsoft confirmed earlier this week that it is in discussions with TikTok’s Beijing-based parent company ByteDance over a potential acquisition, which it said it is looking to accomplish within the 45-day timeframe.

Trump said this week that he does not mind if Microsoft or another company acquires the popular video app, so long as they are “a big company, a secure company, a very American company.”

ByteDance CEO Zhang Yiming told employees in an email Tuesday that a forced sale is “unreasonable,” and said the US wants to see TikTok fail.

“[A sale] is not their goal, or even what they want,” he wrote. “Their real objective is to achieve a comprehensive ban.”