TikTok has filed a lawsuit against the U.S. government challenging the Trump administration’s plan to ban the company’s American operations.
The suit, which was filed in the Federal District Court for the Central District of California on Monday, August 24, alleges that Trump’s order violates due process protections and offers no evidence to back up its claims that TikTok presents a national security threat.
“The executive order is not rooted in bona fide national security concerns,” the complaint reads, noting that “independent national security and information security experts have criticized the political nature of this executive order, and expressed doubt as to whether its stated national security objective is genuine.”
“The [Trump] administration ignored our extensive efforts to address its concerns, which we conducted fully and in good faith,” TikTok wrote in a press release. “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.”
“Our more than 1,500 employees across the U.S. pour their hearts into building this platform every day,” the company said
President Trump has repeatedly said that TikTok, which is owned by the Chinese internet company ByteDance, poses a national security threat because of its Chinese ties.
On August 6, he signed executive orders banning social media apps TikTok and WeChat from operating in the US in 45 days if they are not sold by their Chinese-owned parent companies.
Microsoft already expressed interest in buying TikTok after Trump said he would support the sale of TikTok’s US operations to the US company with September 15 set as the deadline for the Chinese company to find a US buyer.