TikTok Files Suit to Block 27 September Download Ban
The rising social media giant reiterated its earlier arguments that the Trump administration’s concerns over the app’s handling of data are groundless.
TikTok filed an emergency injunction late on Wednesday to halt the Trump administration’s executive order set to ban downloads of its app in the US over national security concerns.
In its filing with the US District Court for the District of Columbia, the social media company said that it could suffer irreparable damage if the administration’s plans to have its app banned from the iOS and Google App Stores while it continues to fight the executive order in court. TikTok alleged that “an American company that employs thousands of individuals will suffer devastating harm to its business, from which it cannot recover even if this court concludes the government’s conduct was unlawful.”
“There is simply no genuine emergency here that would justify the government’s precipitous actions,” the company continued. “And there is no plausible reason to insist the prohibitions be enforced immediately.”
This marks the second lawsuit filed by TikTok against the US government over its plans to ban the app. In its previous suit, it accused the government of violating its right to due process under the Fifth Amendment.
The Trump administration originally sought to have Tiktok’s app banned from US app stores on 20 September, but the Commerce Department moved the deadline back to 27 September after President Trump gave preliminary approval of a deal that would see Oracle purchasing TikTok from parent company ByteDance.
A parallel ban on WeChat, an app owned by Chinese tech conglomerate Tencent, was also to go into effect on Sunday, but a judge issued a temporary stay of the order on First Amendment grounds.
TikTok said that it had “made extraordinary efforts to try to satisfy the government’s ever-shifting demands and purported national security concerns.”
