Executive order against parent company ByteDance gave no «due process.» Social video app said the government gave no “due process.”
TikTok, the popular social video app, fought back this morning, threatening to take President Donald Trump’s administration to court after a weeks-long public battle that culminated last night. In the late hours of Thursday evening, Trump announced an executive order instructing U. S. citizens and companies to cease “transactions” with TikTok parent company ByteDance over alleged security concerns. TikTok has long defended itself against the Trump administration by claiming that it doesn’t collect—or share—data any differently than other apps and platforms that are based in the U. S. Nor, it has said, does it share its U. S. user data with officials in Beijing, where its parent company is headquartered. The order is not an outright ban, which Trump previously said he would pursue—though legally, he would be unilaterally unable to enforce. Instead, Trump’s broad order invokes the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, a law that grants him emergency economic powers, to prohibit any “transaction” between individuals, companies and ByteDance. It’s unclear what constitutes a transaction. In an unsigned statement issued after Trump’s proclamation, TikTok levied that the order undermines “global businesses’ trust in the United States’ commitment of the rule of law” and “sets a dangerous precedent for the concept of free expression and open markets.
