ByteDance, the company behind popular Chinese social media app, TikTok, confirmed on Saturday that it will file a lawsuit against the Trump administration.
This comes after the Trump administration signed an executive order demanding ByteDance to divest its TikTok operations in the US under the grounds of “national security”, giving the company 90 days to sell-off or exit the US market.
TikTok has become widely popular both in the US and all over the world. The Chinese social media giant now has over 2 billion users globally, and is slowly encroaching on the advertising markets of Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat.
Earlier this month the company was in talks with Microsoft and Oracle for a possible sale, which is expected to be finalized by 15th September.
“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.
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.
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 spokesman Josh Gartner said in a statement to the media.