Breaking News

TikTok to SUE Trump over ‘unconstitutional’ ban as Twitter joins battle for its US assets & users – reports

RT

Twitter has reportedly joined the race for TikTok’s juicy assets, while its Chinese owner seeks to sue the Trump administration, claiming that the move to force it out of the US market is based purely on anti-China scaremongering.

Presented as a crucial move to protect Americans and their precious data from pesky Chinese spies, the US President Donald Trump’s executive order earlier this week set a 45-day deadline for ByteDance to ‘divest’ its US operations. 

Beijing argues that all the “national security” concerns are just a pretext for a hostile takeover to solidify Washington’s dominance online. Challenging the move, TikTok is set to file a federal lawsuit in the US District Court for the Southern District of California as early as Tuesday, a company source told NPR, arguing that Trump’s executive action is “unconstitutional.”

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.

Also on rt.com
© Reuters / Florence Lo
Colonialism 2.0: US assault on TikTok is latest step in building monopoly on hearts & minds of internet-connected world

Meanwhile, Twitter has become the second American tech behemoth to express interest in obtaining TikTok’s assets, according to sources cited by Reuters. It is unclear, though, if the social media giant will be able to outbid Microsoft, which is rumored to be the prime contender in the takeover.

TikTok is an insanely popular video-sharing app, especially among the youths, that has around 80 monthly active users in the United States, some 80 percent of them below the age of 34. Its parent ByteDance has more than 1,000 employees across the US, while its American assets and operations are estimated at some $30 to 40 billion.

Also on rt.com
FILE PHOTO: TikTok app on a smartphone. August 7, 2020. © Drew Angerer / Getty Images North America / AFP
‘Flagrant example of unfair competition’: Russia slams US over ‘baseless’ ban on China's TikTok

Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!



Read more
August 08, 2020 at 04:53PM
from RT - Daily news
via IFTTT

No comments