The Wall Street Journal is reporting that ByteDance, Ltd, the owner of popular short form video platform TikTok, is planning to sue the Trump Administration over its ban of TikTok in the US. Slated to take effect on September 20th after an executive order released by Donald Trump gave the company 45 days to divest US operations, TikTok “is expected to claim that the Trump administration failed to follow due process,” according to the report. TikTok has already hinted that it would take action against the order, but this latest news provides a clearer timeline and focus of the upcoming legal action, with Reuters reporting that plans are for a lawsuit to be filed this week.
The US government contends that TikTok is a national security threat to the US, claiming that the video platform company has close ties with the Chinese government, and could be sharing sensitive user data on US users with them. TikTok has denied any sharing arrangements, but the US is not the only country worried about TikTok’s close ties with China. India has banned it for misuse of data and transmission of data to servers outside of India.
Microsoft officially acknowledged that it was pursuing an acquisition of TikTok’s US operations, along with those in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Later reports link Microsoft to interest in UK operations, too, as well as reportedly showing interest in India and European operations.. Other companies are interested as well, including Oracle.
The Trump executive order sets a September 20th deadline, and Microsoft has said that it will take action by September 15th.
