Video application TikTok has said that it will challenge in court the United States government’s decision to ban it and accusing it of being a national security threat, AFP reported on Sunday.
On August 6, US President Donald Trump had signed an executive order, giving Americans 45 days to stop doing business with TikTok’s Chinese parent company ByteDance. On August 15, he gave ByteDance 90 days to sell its assets in America.
TikTok said it will challenge the August 6 order. “To ensure that the rule of law is not discarded and that our company and users are treated fairly, we have no choice but to challenge the Executive Order through the judicial system,” TikTok said in a statement. TikTok has repeatedly denied that it is a threat to national security.
The video app did not say which court it plans to approach, Bloomberg reported. The company said that it tried to work out a solution to address American concerns for almost a year.
On August 5, Zhang Yiming, the founder of ByteDance Ltd said sale to Microsoft was the only way TikTok could prevent itself from being banned in the US. Microsoft had on August 3 said it was in talks with ByteDance to buy parts of TikTok.
A bunch of Chinese apps were banned in India in the aftermath of the Galwan Valley clash on June 15, in which 20 Indian soldiers were killed. The deaths of Indian soldiers had sparked calls for the boycott of Chinese goods and business. In June, the Centre banned 59 Chinese apps – including TikTok – citing threats to national security and sovereignty. Forty-seven applications, which were clones of the banned apps, were also blocked. China had called India’s move to ban the mobile apps a violation of World Trade Organization rules.
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