What’s up?
It’s Emile Ennis Jr. here with Clevver News and just when you thought the drama between
TikTok and Donald Trump couldn’t get any more heated, TikTok is reportedly suing the
President for trying to ban the app from the United States.
Alright, so if you are a fan of Tik Tok, you’ve probably been keeping up with the news about
Donald Trump announcing his plans to ban Tik Tok in the United States using his executive
authority.
“We’re looking at Tik Tok.
We may be banning Tik Tok, we may be doing some other things.”
Lawmakers in both political parties have actually expressed concerns over TikTok's Chinese ownership
and fears that Tik Tok’s parent company may be sharing data of American users with
the Chinese government.
But Trump made a surprise announcement last month that he plans to ban the app which shocked
fellow U.S.
Officials, fans, and Tik Tok itself.
Trump went on to set a deadline of September 15th for the app to be bought by a US company
or else he plans on shutting it down.
"It'll close down on September 15th unless Microsoft or somebody else is able to buy
it and work out a deal, an appropriate deal."
And at the time, many reports said that it doesn’t seem like Trump has the power to
just ban Tik Tok, but last week he actually put in place an executive order, calling the
wide use of Chinese apps like Tik Tok a quote "national emergency."
So as of last Thursday, he went ahead and signed an executive order to ban TikTok in
45 days.
And this is the executive order that Tik Tok is now reportedly suing him over.
So what did it say?
The executive order says “TikTok automatically captures vast swaths of information from its
users, including internet and other network activity information such as location data
and browsing and search histories.
This data collection threatens to allow the Chinese Communist Party access to Americans'
personal and proprietary information --- potentially allowing China to track the locations of Federal
employees, build dossiers of personal information for blackmail, and conduct corporate espionage.”
But it’s important to note that the executive order bans Byte Dance, Tik Tok’s parent
company based in China, not Tik Tok itself.
So this still leaves the possibility for TikTok to continue operating in the U.S. under an
American company like Microsoft, which has been in talks about buying some or all of
TikTok.
And a Tik Tok ban would impact more than just the 100 million users and all of the famous
Tik Tokkers in the United States.
More than 1,000 U.S.-based employees could have their paychecks indefinitely frozen.
It could force landlords where TikTok operates to evict them.
And it could make it nearly impossible for American lawyers to represent TikTok in any
U.S. legal proceedings.
So shortly after Trump’s executive order was published, Tik Tok came out with their
own statement slamming the Trump administration writing quote, “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.”
And now, according to multiple reports, TikTok is planning to sue the Trump administration
and challenge the president's executive order banning the app from the United States.
NPR is reporting that Tik Tok will file a federal lawsuit with the U.S. District Court
in California as soon as Tuesday.
NPR also said that the lawsuit will argue that President Trump's far-reaching action
is unconstitutional because it failed to give the company a chance to respond.
According to their source, it also alleges that the Trump administration's national security
justification for the order is baseless.
The insider said quote, “It's based on pure speculation and conjecture.
The order has no findings of fact, just reiterates rhetoric about China that has been kicking
around.”
The source added that the president's order seemed rushed and did not include any opportunities
for TikTok to have legal representation, which the company plans to argue is a violation
of their rights.
So basically, what that means, is that Tik Tok is saying it’s unfair to punish them
with the ban without giving them a chance to present their side of the story in court.
The White House supposedly declined to comment on the potential lawsuit, but they defended
the president's executive order saying quote, “The Administration is committed to protecting
the American people from all cyber related threats to critical infrastructure, public
health and safety, and our economic and national security.”
And fans are taking to Twitter to share their thoughts on all of this.
One person said that plenty of other companies are guilty of quote “stealing data” writing,
“Apple, google, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram all do the exact same thing in one form or
the other… what percentage of responsibility is on you.
Read the fine print..”
Another Twitter user chimed in saying “2020 is funny, so now tik tok is supposedly filing
a law suit against the "leader" of the "free world"
And this person made their stance clear tweeting saying quote, “Only in America would Tik-Tok
be banned before semi-automatic rifles.”
So it looks like the only thing that’s certain right now regarding the future of Tik Tok
in the United States is that it’s completely uncertain.
I feel like that’s just a 2020 theme at this point.
But I guess we will just have to enjoy Tik Tokking for the next 39 ish days and hope
for the best.
Obviously we will keep you guys updated on this story as it continues to unfold.
And if you want more Tik Tok news, click right over here to see what Charli D’Amelio thinks
of Tik Tok’s new competitor, Instagram Reels.
Also, share your thoughts on whether or not you think Tik Tok is actually going to get
banned down in the comments below.
Would you be sad to see it go?
I’m your host Emile Ennis Jr., bye guys!