TikTok lawsuit against Trump administration over executive order expected soon
'The order has no findings of fact,' a source told NPR
TikTok is reportedly planning to sue the Trump administration as soon as Tuesday after the president signed an executive order banning U.S. companies from doing business with the Chinese-owned app, according to NPR.
The lawsuit will be filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California and will argue that President Trump's order was unconstitutional and the administration's accusations that TikTok poses a threat to security and data privacy are baseless, a source familiar with the matter told NPR.
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"It's based on pure speculation and conjecture," the person told the outlet. "The order has no findings of fact, just reiterates rhetoric about China that has been kicking around."
TikTok and Facebook apps (iStock)
TikTok did not immediately respond to an inquiry from FOX Business.
The news comes after TikTok issued an Aug. 7 statement saying the company would "pursue all remedies available to us in order to ensure...our company and our users are treated fairly – if not by the Administration, then by the U.S. courts."
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The president and U.S. officials argue that the Chinese government has the capacity to spy on U.S. TikTok users under China's 2017 National Intelligence Law, which says individuals and companies must comply with information requests from the Chinese Communist Party.
TikTok, which is owned by the Chinese tech company ByteDance, maintains that it does not share any user information with the Chinese government. The company has also been stepping up its U.S. workforce presence and has entertained the prospect of selling its U.S. operations to an American company like Microsoft, as FOX Business first reported.
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The U.S. has been cracking down on Chinese tech companies and their employees as tensions rise between the two countries amid coronavirus and after the Trump administration ordered the closure of China's consulate in Houston on accusations of espionage.
American tech giants including Facebook, Twitter and Google, as well as U.S. news publications such as The New York Times and Washington Post, have been banned in China for years.
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