Watch CBS News

TikTok Sues Trump Administration, Claims Ban Violates Its Right To Due Process

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) — TikTok is answering a federal ban Monday with a lawsuit, alleging President Donald Trump's efforts to stop the company from doing business in the United States violates its right to due process.

US-IT-CHINA-POLITICS-TIKTOK
In this photo illustration, the social media application logo, TikTok is displayed on the screen of an iPhone on an American flag background on August 3, 2020 in Arlington, Virginia. - The US Senate voted on August 6, 2020, to bar TikTok from being downloaded onto US government employees' telephones, intensifying US scrutiny of the popular Chinese-owned video app. The bill passed by the Republican controlled Senate now goes to the House of Representatives, led by Democrats. (Photo by Olivier DOULIERY / AFP) (Photo by OLIVIER DOULIERY/AFP via Getty Images)

President Trump signed an executive order earlier this month prohibiting transactions with TikTok and its Chinese parent company ByteDance. The order cited security concerns accusing the social media network – whose U.S. headquarters are in Culver City – of threatening the "foreign policy and economy of the United States." A second executive order issued a week later gave ByteDance 90 days to divest from its American assets and any data that TikTok had gathered in the United States.

The complaint filed in Los Angeles federal court alleges the executive order ignores the company's right to due process and that the government is aware of the measures TikTok has taken "to protect the privacy and security of TikTok's U.S. user data," including having TikTok store such data outside of China and by "erecting software barriers" to help ensure that TikTok maintains its U.S. user data separately from other ByteDance products.

TikTok's CEO, chief security officer and general counsel, are all Americans based in the United States, and not subject to Chinese law, according to the company's 39-page complaint, which also states that the app's content is managed by a U.S.-based team "which operates independently from China.''

"By banning TikTok with no notice or opportunity to be heard – whether before or after the fact – the executive order violates the due process protections of the Fifth Amendment" and is a "misuse" of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, which allows the president to regulate economic transactions in a national emergency, according to the lawsuit.

(© Copyright 2020 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. City News Service contributed to this report.)

View CBS News In
CBS News App Open
Chrome Safari Continue
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.