The war between the video app TikTok and the White House continues. This time, the social network decided to file a lawsuit in Federal Court in Los Angeles, California, against the Department of Commerce, President Donald Trump and Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross, to prevent the Government from banning the operation of the social network in the country. The Chinese company specifically refers to two executive orders issued in early August. The first of these establishes a radical but unspecified ban on any with ByteDance, and the second orders that company to sell the assets used to support TikTok in the United States. TikTok noted in the complaint that the executive order issued by the trump Administration on has the potential to strip our community of rights without any evidence to justify such extreme action and without due process
According to the Trump Administration, TikTok poses a "threat" to national security and creates real risks for the United States. White House officials explain that the "threat" lies in the ability of the Chinese government to demand the cooperation of Chinese companies. TikTok argues that it has not shared US user data with the Chinese government , that it would not, and that it does not censor videos at the request of the Chinese authorities. But, so far, the Trump Administration has not produced documents to support any of the allegations, nor has it provided specific evidence that TikTok has made the data of US users available to the Chinese government.
In Washington, lawmakers, both Republicans and Democrats, have also shared their concerns about the social network, ranging from its vulnerability to censorship and misinformation campaigns, to the security of user data.TikTok claims to have taken steps to protect its users in the US.
In response, ByteDance said it has protected US user data by storing it within the country and in Singapore, not in China, and software barriers that help ensure that TikTok stores your US user data separately from US users. user data from other products of the company ".
What does Tik Tok expect from the court ruling?
The Chinese company said it is aware that the Trump Administration has significant discretion with matters of national security. However, ByteDance hopes that the Californian court will agree that the US president & its order seeks to prohibit activities that “have not been considered an unusual and extraordinary threat”, which is required by the Emergency Economic Powers Act. International, which Trump cited as one of the bases of his order. China rejects the idea of TikTok selling its assets Foreign Ministry of China is opposed to the forced sale of TikTok, an operation that in its opinion violates the principles of the World Trade Organization.
In fact, the Chinese Government sees the intention to sell TikTok as another chapter in the trade war between Beijing and Washington, which tries to contain the technological development of the Asian giant, an act already seen with the telecommunications firm Huawei. Attempts to pressure TikTok by trump admin are viewed with concern by tech giants with global ambitions such as Alibaba and Tencent.
