CONFIRMED: TikTok Is Suing The Trump Administration To ‘Ensure The Rule Of Law’
(Oliver Douliery, Getty Images)
The Chinese-owned social media giant TikTok confirmed Saturday it will be suing President Donald Trump‘s administration due to his executive order banning U.S. transactions with its parent company, ByteDance.
Rumors of the lawsuit were first reported on Friday by Reuters, with the company confirming the legal action less than 24 hours later.
“Even though we strongly disagree with the Administration’s concerns, for nearly a year we have sought to engage in good faith to provide a constructive solution,” TikTok spokesperson Josh Gartner told Mediaite. “What we encountered instead was a lack of due process as the Administration paid no attention to facts and tried to insert itself into negotiations between private businesses.”
BREAKING: TikTok spokesperson confirms the company will sue the Trump administration over the President’s executive order to ban U.S. transactions
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) August 22, 2020
Gartner adds, “To ensure that the rule of law is not discarded and that our company and users are treated fairly, we have no choice but to challenge the Executive Order through the judicial system.”
TikTok’s legal challenge focused on Trump’s August 6th executive order that mandates all U.S. transactions with ByteDance will be forbidden in 45 days and grants the Secretary of Commerce the power to decide which of those transactions fall under the order.
Trump issued another order on August 14 demanding ByteDance divest all of its U.S. operations for TikTok. Currently, the parent company is in talks with Microsoft and Oracle over acquiring the social media platform. TikTok’s lawsuit will not affect its potential sale talks with Microsoft and Oracle, according to CNBC.
