TikTok ‘shocked’ by Trump’s ban on transactions with its parent company, threatens legal action

TikTok denied having ever shared user data with the Chinese government and threated to sue the Trump Administration after the US president signed an executive order that would ban Americans from dealing with its parent company.

“We are shocked by the recent Executive Order, which was issued without any due process,” the social media platform wrote on its website. “For nearly a year, we have sought to engage with the US government in good faith to provide a constructive solution to the concerns that have been expressed.”

What we encountered instead was that the Administration paid no attention to facts, dictated terms of an agreement without going through standard legal processes, and tried to insert itself into negotiations between private businesses.

On Thursday, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order that would in 45 days ban Americans from making transactions with TikTok’s Chinese-owned parent company ByteDance, as well as with Chinese conglomerate Tencent, the owner of the WeChat messenger app. Trump argued that the apps pose a threat to US national security, accusing the companies of collecting personal data of Americans and sharing it with the Chinese government.

TikTok rejected these claims, saying that the order was based on “unnamed ‘reports’ with no citations” and “fears that the app ‘may be’ used for misinformation campaigns with no substantiation of such fears.”“We have made clear that TikTok has never shared user data with the Chinese government, nor censored content at its request,” the statement reads.

We will pursue all remedies available to us in order to ensure that the rule of law is not discarded and that our company and our users are treated fairly – if not by the Administration, then by the US courts.

The action against TikTok and WeChat comes at a time of growing hostilities between the US and China, with Washington accusing Beijing of using Chinese-owned companies to spy on American citizens and entities. China has repeatedly denied such claims.

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