TikTok Threatens Legal Action Against US Ban

President Trump has recently said he would ban Chinese-owned video app TikTok from the United States and in response, TikTok intends to take legal action against the US.  

The Trump administration claims that the App could pass data on US citizens back to the Chinese government. Since TikTok is one of the only recent social media startups to compete with tech giants like Facebook, weakening TikTok could further concentrate power among a few tech giants in the US.

The organisation said it was "shocked" by an executive order from the US President outlining the ban and TikTok said it would "pursue all remedies available" to "ensure the rule of law is not discarded".

A TikTok spokesperson told NBC News that the app helped to create jobs across the US and was committed to user privacy. “We’ve hired nearly 1,000 people to our US team this year alone, and are proud to be hiring another 10,000 employees into great paying jobs across the US,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “Our $1 billion creator fund supports US creators who are building livelihoods from our platform.

“TikTok US user data is stored in the US, with strict controls on employee access,” the statement said. “TikTok’s biggest investors come from the US. We are committed to protecting our users’ privacy and safety as we continue working to bring joy to families and meaningful careers to those who create on our platform.”

While this conditional ban on TikTok’s US business operations will likely face serious legal challenges, and it’s unclear how immediately enforceable it is, the order creates a serious challenge for TikTok, a wildly popular video streaming app with some 100 million US users. President Trump issued a similar order against China's WeChat in a major escalation in Washington's growing confrontation with the Chinese government. 

As well as WeChat, Tencent is also a leading gaming company and its investments include a 40% stake in Epic Games. The US  President has already threatened to ban TikTok in the US, citing national security concerns, and the company is now in talks to sell its American business to Microsoft. By Executive Order, they have until 15 September to reach a deal.  The executive orders against the short-video sharing platform and the messaging service WeChat are the latest measure in an increasingly broad Trump administration campaign against China.

The Trump administration claims that the Chinese government has access to user information gathered by TikTok, which the company has denied. 

Though TikTok, which is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, is best known as a place where teens share short, often lighthearted musical videos, it has become the center of geopolitical controversy between the US and China over technological power.

For the established US social media giants Facebook and Google, the decision could significantly weaken their fiercest new competitor. A forced sale of TikTok could have negative consequences beyond the people running TikTok. The move threatens to jeopardise the success of an app that’s had a meteoric rise from a relative underdog to one of the most downloaded apps in the world.   

ByteDance:     BBC:        Independent:      Vogue:     CNBC:       Vox:   

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