Earlier this month, TikTok threatened to sue Donald Trump over his executive order. That threat has now been realized according to court documents.
It’s been quite a month for TikTok. Earlier this month, impeached US president, Donald Trump, signed an executive order banning TikTok within 45 days. While the practicality and legality of the executive order is highly questionable, TikTok was, nevertheless, displeased with the move. The social media platform responded by threatening to sue Trump over the executive order.
Part of the executive order also bans business dealings with the parent company and related companies. For some, that seemingly includes Tencent holdings, makers of the game Fortnite. They also hold a stake in Riot Games, makers of League of Legends. So, parts of the gaming community are also nervous about the executive order as well.
Now, TikTok has apparently followed through with the threat and formally filed a lawsuit against the president. From the BBC:
Tiktok said the Trump administration’s move was motivated by politics, not national security.
The popular social media app currently has more than 80 million users in the US.
In its lawsuit, Tiktok said it had taken “extraordinary” steps to safeguard US data in response to Washington’s concerns and argued that the order is a misuse of national security law.
The order “is not based on a bona fide national emergency and authorises the prohibition of activities that have not been found to pose ‘an unusual and extraordinary threat’,” the firm said in the complaint, parts of which were shared on its website ahead of Monday’s filing.
“The president’s demands for payments have no relationship to any conceivable national security concern and serve only to underscore that defendants failed to provide plaintiffs with the due process required by law,” the firm said.
Tiktok added in the filing in federal court in California: “The president’s actions clearly reflect a political decision to campaign on an anti-China platform.”
One thing that will be interesting to see is whether or not the lawsuit can also delay the implementation of the executive order. If it doesn’t have an effect on that front, a question might be how the executive order would actually affect things. Will it be business as usual for gamers and the social media platform or will ISPs begin blocking the platform and access to the related games? At this point, we don’t really know because we are pretty much in uncharted territory at this point. Sooner or later, though, we’ll find out though.
Drew Wilson on Twitter: @icecube85 and Facebook.
