Los Angeles: Video-sharing social networking company TikTok filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration over an executive order banning any US transactions with its parent company ByteDance.
In the 39-page indictment, US President Donald Trump, Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross and US Department of Commerce were listed as defendants.
President Trump filed an executive order on August 6, prohibiting ByteDance from doing any transaction in the US for 45 days.
Trump issued another executive order on August 14, giving ByteDance an option to divest its TikTok business in the US within 90 days.
TikTok has filed the lawsuit against the first executive order.
According to the document, TikTok accused the US authorities of stripping the rights of the company without any evidence to justify the extreme action, and issuing the order without any due process as guaranteed by the Fifth Amendment while banning the company with no notice or opportunity to be heard.
Meanwhile, the document cited remarks from Trump about this issue, such as proclaiming in a campaign-style news conference that TikTok had “no rights” and that he would ban the popular software if the company did not pay money to the government to secure its approval for any sale. Those words are unconstitutional.
“By demanding that Plaintiffs make a payment to the US Treasury as a condition for the sale of TikTok, the President has taken Plaintiffs’ property without compensation in violation of the Fifth Amendment,” the document said.
Moreover, the indictment said, by preventing TikTok from operating in the United States, the executive order violates the company’s First Amendment rights in its code, an expressive means of communication.
“The President’s executive order is unconstitutional and ultra vires, and must be enjoined,” the document read.
