TikTok owner ByteDance said in a statement on Monday that it was suing the Trump administration to challenge a ban on the Chinese video sharing application in the United States, saying it had no choice but to protect its rights against US President Donald Trump's executive order and allegation that it was a national security threat
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 24th August, 2020) TikTok owner ByteDance said in a statement on Monday that it was suing the Trump administration to challenge a ban on the Chinese video sharing application in the United States, saying it had no choice but to protect its rights against US President Donald Trump's executive order and allegation that it was a national security threat.
"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," the statement said. "We strongly disagree with the [Trump] administration's position that TikTok is a national security threat and we have articulated these objections previously."
President Donald Trump has threatened to ban TikTok and WeChat by September 15 if they are not sold to a US company.
The company said it had taken extraordinary measures to protect the privacy and security of its US user data, including having such data stored outside of China - in the United States and Singapore - and erecting software barriers to prevent co-mingling with data of other ByteDance products.
"These actions were made known to the US government during a recent US national security review of ByteDance's 2017 acquisition of a China-based company, Musical.ly," the lawsuit said. "As part of that review, plaintiffs provided voluminous documentation to the US government documenting TikTok's security practices and made commitments that were more than sufficient to address any conceivable US government privacy or national security concerns."
The lawsuit also said the Trump administration ignored the great lengths TikTok went to demonstrate its commitment to serving the US market, including the more than 1,500 employees across the United States.
ByteDance was reported earlier this month that it entered into talks with microsoft and Oracle on the possible sale of its US operations. Microsoft has emerged as the main bidder while Twitter has also held talks with the Chinese company.
The company also said in the lawsuit that the US president's demands have no relationship to any conceivable national security concern and serve only to underscore that it failed to provide a due process required by law.
Trump said earlier this month that a substantial portion of the sale's proceeds, speculated in US media to be as high as $50 billion, should go to the US Treasury.
