TikTok is suing the Trump administration Monday for essentially banning its popular video-sharing app in the US, arguing that an executive order the president signed earlier this month was put together in haste without regard for the company’s rights, reported the Wall Street Journal.
In the lawsuit, set to be filed in federal court for the Central District of California, TikTok lawyers said that the company has “taken extraordinary measures to protect the privacy and security of TikTok’s US user data” and that it has explained those efforts to the federal government during a recent national security review.
“By banning TikTok with no notice or opportunity to be heard (whether before or after the fact), the executive order violates the due process protections of the Fifth Amendment,” the complaint says, according to excerpts viewed by The Wall Street Journal.
US officials say they are concerned that TikTok, owned by Beijing-based ByteDance Ltd., could pass on data it collects from Americans streaming videos to China’s authoritarian government. TikTok has said it hasn’t been asked to share data with the Chinese government and wouldn’t do so if asked.
Earlier this month, Mr. Trump issued an order calling on TikTok’s Chinese owner to divest itself of the video-sharing app’s US operations, setting a 90-day deadline for the transaction to be completed.
