TikTok sues Donald Trump and US government over threatened ban
- US president’s executive order gave China’s ByteDance 90 days to divest popular video-sharing app’s US operations
- Meanwhile, some ByteDance investors are looking to use stakes to finance bid for TikTok
TikTok sued the US government on Monday over an executive order that would ban the popular short-form video-sharing app in the United States.
The lawsuit, which was filed in federal district court for the Central District of California, was the app’s strongest opposition to the White House yet in an escalating battle by US President Donald Trump for singling out the Chinese owned video app as a national security threat.
TikTok and its Chinese parent ByteDance sued the president, the US Department of Commerce and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross.
The Trump administration as well as lawmakers have repeatedly accused TikTok as a threat to US national security as any Chinese-owned company could be obliged to hand over crucial US information to Beijing.
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Trump in his August 6 executive order requested that the app be sold within 45 days or face a ban on any transaction in the US. Trump issued a separate executive order on August 14 giving ByteDance 90 days, or until November 12, to divest TikTok’s US operations to an American owner.