The Trump administration said Friday it had powers to ban Americans' use of the TikTok and said in a lawsuit that the popular Chinese video-sharing app poses a national security threat due to its relationship with the Chinese government.
Trump administration attorneys said in a motion filed Friday in the U.S. District Court in Washington DC that the U.S. government could impose restrictions on the app that would make it unusable in the U.S. next month. The proposed restrictions are in line with the president's authority to protect and restrict US national security, which is contrary to the law and previous decisions, according to US government lawyers.
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"The president shouldn't be prevented from regulating threats to national security just because a foreign opponent is covering up his activities in a media company," government lawyers said in a 46-page file.
An executive order signed by President Donald Trump in August bans all US transactions with TikTok's Chinese parent company, ByteDance. The data collected by TikTok "threatens to give the Chinese Communist Party access to Americans' personal and proprietary information," and could enable China to track the location of federal employees and contractors. In September set up a covenant granted TikTok's application for an injunction against the order.
A separate executive order issued on August 14th ordered ByteDance to sell its US operations through November 12th, resulting in a potential deal with Oracle that is currently in the air.
TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but said it has never disclosed US user data to the Chinese government and would not do so even if asked.
TikTok questions the order of the executive branch, arguing that Trump failed to follow due process or provided evidence that TikTok was an actual threat.
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