TikTok Decides To Sue U.S. Government For Imposing Sanctions

The Chinese company Bytedance which is the parent company of TikTok has announced that it will take legal action against the sanctions imposed by the US government. The Trump administration would like to block the service unless TikTok is sold to a US company by November.

The lawsuit should be directed against the transaction ban imposed by Trump and thus indirectly against the US government. According to Reuters, Bytedance is of the opinion that the government is not adhering to “the valid procedures and facts“. With the lawsuit, which is expected to be filed in the coming week, TikTok wants to ensure that the conflict is resolved with the help of constitutional principles and not on the basis of arbitrariness.

Trump sees national security at risk

The Chinese provider Bytedance is accused of espionage and of passing on collected user data to the Chinese government. For this reason, US President Donald Trump sees the social network as a threat to national security. He had signed a decree on August 6, forcing Bytedance to divest TikTok’s US business within 45 days. The deadline has now been extended to 90 days. This gives the company until November to complete a takeover.

In addition to Microsoft, several other companies are also interested in taking over TikTok’s US business. Twitter and Oracle are said to have already had their first takeover talks with Bytedance. It remains rather unclear whether a takeover will actually take place by November. It is conceivable that the announced lawsuit could postpone the sanctions imposed by Trump for a while.