TikTok has sued the government of United States over Donald Trump’s plan to ban its operations in America.
The suit was filed in the Federal District Court for the Central District of California recently and it alleges that Trump’s directive contravenes due process protections and provides no evidence to substantiate its claims that TikTok presents a national security threat.
The complaint read: “The executive order is not rooted in bona fide national security concerns” and added that “Independent national security and information security experts have criticized the political nature of this executive order, and expressed doubt as to whether its stated national security objective is genuine.”
In a press release, TikTok wrote: “The [Trump] administration ignored our extensive efforts to address its concerns, which we conducted fully and in good faith.
“We do not take suing the government lightly, however, we feel we have no choice but to take action to protect our rights, and the rights of our community and employees.
“Our more than 1,500 employees across the U.S. pour their hearts into building this platform every day.”
President Trump has said on many occasions that TikTok, which is owned by the Chinese internet company ByteDance, presents a national security threat owing to its Chinese ties.
Trump signed executive orders prohibiting social media apps TikTok and WeChat from functioning in the US in 45 days if they are not put up for sale by their Chinese-owned parent companies.
Microsoft has expressed interest in buying TikTok after Trump revealed he would support the sale of TikTok’s U.S. operations to the U.S. company. September 15 has been set as the deadline for the Chinese company to get a buyer from United States.
