TikTok says it has filed a legal challenge against Trump’s August 14 divestment order to defend rights

US President Donald Trump in an August 14 executive order directed the app’s Chinese owner ByteDance to divest TikTok before November 12

TikTok said it has worked with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) to address national security concerns

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TikTok said it has worked with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) to address national security concerns. Photo: AP

Coco Fengin BeijingandTracy Quin Hong Kong

Published: 12:46pm, 11 Nov 2020Updated: 11:35pm, 11 Nov 2020

TikTok, the short video app whose fate in the US depends on a forced sale that is still pending approval, said one day before the deadline for a deal to be done that it “has no choice but to file a petition in court to defend our rights and those of our more than 1,500 employees in the US.”

US President Donald Trump in an August 14 executive order directed the app’s Chinese owner ByteDance to divest TikTok before November 12 for national security reasons, unless the deadline is extended for a period of no more than 30 days.

TikTok said on Wednesday that it has not been granted the 30-day grace period that it requested. With the Thursday deadline imminent, it has no alternative but to file a petition to court, it said in a statement on its Twitter account.

TikTok said it has worked with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) to address national security concerns. “We have offered detailed solutions to finalise that agreement – but have received no substantive feedback on our extensive data privacy and security framework.”

In a proposed deal agreed in September, ByteDance will form a US- based entity with new shareholders Oracle and Walmart, with the former taking a 12.5 per cent stake in the new entity [which will store all its US data to comply with US national security requirements] and Walmart holding 7.5 per cent. ByteDance and some of its current US investors will remain as a majority shareholder.

Amid a widening tech war between the US and China, the deal has faced an uphill struggle in securing approval from both Beijing and Washington, neither of which wants to lose face in the high stakes battle. China’s export control list, which added two key technologies used by TikTok in late August, has further complicated the deal.

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