TikTok moves to sue Trump administration and U.S.

onetheycallEric

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In context: Despite its popularity, TikTok continues to attract the gaze of U.S. lawmakers who fear the app could be a conduit for Chinese espionage. The Trump administration has issued a pair of executive orders aimed at banning ByteDance and forcing a TikTok divestiture in the U.S. And while it seems an acquisition of TikTok's U.S. operations is likely, ByteDance is preparing to answer in kind with legal action of its own.

Update (Aug 24): TikTok has confirmed they are filing a complaint in federal court challenging Trump's efforts to ban the social platform in the US.

Rumors have been swirling for weeks about a potential legal backlash from TikTok over its ban in the United States. Between Friday and Saturday, multiple reports surfaced suggesting that a lawsuit is all but certain, and that legal filings could be finalized as early as next week. The Verge seems to have removed any speculation from the matter, as they were able to obtain a statement from TikTok spokesman Josh Gartner.

“Even though we strongly disagree with the administration’s concerns, for nearly a year we have sought to engage in good faith to provide a constructive solution. What we encountered instead was a lack of due process as the administration paid no attention to facts and tried to insert itself into negotiations between private businesses. To ensure that the rule of law is not discarded and that our company and users are treated fairly, we have no choice but to challenge the Executive Order through the judicial system," Gartner told The Verge.

"To ensure that the rule of law is not discarded and that our company and users are treated fairly, we have no choice but to challenge the Executive Order through the judicial system"

The legal action would primarily challenge the first executive order President Trump handed down in early August. It stated that within 45 days, all transactions with ByteDance (TikTok's parent company) would be banned. Then, Trump levied another executive order, giving ByteDance 90 days to divest its U.S. TikTok operations.

It seems ByteDance's legal defense would center on proving it was denied due process, as Trump's first executive order invokes the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. Furthermore, ByteDance also plans to contest its classification as a national security threat in the United States.

TikTok remains mired in controversy as US-China tensions continue to escalate. ByteDance's lawsuit seems to come at a time when more and more companies and investors are interested in acquiring the U.S. portion of TikTok. Most recently, both Oracle and Twitter have thrown their hats in the ring. Meanwhile, Microsoft is still in talks to buy TikTok, and is looking to close a deal by September.

Image credit: Joaquin Corbalan P

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So the POTUS really hasn’t nothing more important to do these days...
Pushing back against an authoritarian regime that is:

1. Placing a million plus of its own citizens into concentration camps, while coercing and censoring all the rest.
2. Militarily threatening nearly every neighbor it has while expanding its armed forces faster than any other nation in the world.
3. Engaged in mass surveillance of not only its own populace, but through funding and control of networking and software firms, the entire world at large.
3. Engaged in a cold-war style attack on US industrial and military secrets (the FBI reports over 2,500 active cases against China and Chinese actors at just this point in time alone)

That's not "important"?

I won't even mention China's transgressions with regards to Covid. But it's rather clear the virus didn't come out of a Wuhan food market ... and China was still telling the world the virus didn't spread through human contact several months after they knew it one of the most infectious viruses known.
 
Pushing back against an authoritarian regime that is:

1. Placing a million plus of its own citizens into concentration camps, while coercing and censoring all the rest.
2. Militarily threatening nearly every neighbor it has while expanding its armed forces faster than any other nation in the world.
3. Engaged in mass surveillance of not only its own populace, but through funding and control of networking and software firms, the entire world at large.
3. Engaged in a cold-war style attack on US industrial and military secrets (the FBI reports over 2,500 active cases against China and Chinese actors at just this point in time alone)

That's not "important"?

I won't even mention China's transgressions with regards to Covid. But it's rather clear the virus didn't come out of a Wuhan food market ... and China was still telling the world the virus didn't spread through human contact several months after they knew it one of the most infectious viruses known.
Dude, we are speaking about TikTok...

US speaking about "military threatening" makes me laugh loud.
As far as Covid is the matter, Trump is the one to blame for a very poor response to the crysis.
 
Perhaps if Tik Tok hadn't engaged in shady dodgy practices from day 1 and then tried to back pedal claiming innocence, they'd not find themselves under such scrutiny.
 
Dude, we are speaking about TikTok...
We're speaking about software on tens of millions of US phones. It may not be quite the threat Hauwei is, but then few things are. Trump was not the first by far to sound the alarm about the motivations behind the Chinese government's tight coupling to their technology firms, particularly those distributing hardware, firmware, and software to potential adversaries.

As far as Covid is the matter, Trump is the one to blame for a very poor response to the crysis.
I believe you're too intelligent to stand on that statement, once you reason through and articulate the purported reasons for it.
 
I am split in two minds:
-Just banning things left right and center does nothing and is data collection from a foreign power really that worse than companies who only cares about how they profit from you. They are 1 and the same.
-China bans American companies anyway, or censors them (Facebook, Google), I don't at all blame the US for banning Chinese companies, even if I think it is a childish endeavors for both sides.

The whole covid thing. Israel can blame China. Taiwan can blame China. New Zealand can blame China. Vietnam can blame China. Perhaps even Europe can. They definitely unnecessarily suffered from covid and can justifiably say if China did things better and faster, it might not had been so bad.

American government has no one to blame but themselves. The pathetic response on the pandemic has caused bigger issues than anything China did or didn't do. Not to mention the original strains is traced back to the Italy outbreak anyway. How does a country that is a pacific ocean away and is less dense, become a bigger epidemic center of the pandemic than the country of origin which happens to be the most populous country in the world?
 
The original strains is traced back to the Italy outbreak anyway. How does a country that is a pacific ocean away and is less dense, become a bigger epidemic center of the pandemic than the country of origin which happens to be the most populous country in the world?
Good question, but easy to answer. The Chinese authorities knew about Covid, its risks and transmission modes well before the epidemic began. Italy -- relying on information from China and the WHO that Covid didn't spread through human transmission -- did not have that luxury. By the time they knew what China did, Covid had already achieved community spread.

When the outbreak in Wuhan was at its height, China banned flights from the region to elsewhere in China... but allowed international flights to and from Wuhan to continue unchecked. That alone tells you everything you need to know.
 
Pushing back against an authoritarian regime that is:

1. Placing a million plus of its own citizens into concentration camps, while coercing and censoring all the rest.
2. Militarily threatening nearly every neighbor it has while expanding its armed forces faster than any other nation in the world.
3. Engaged in mass surveillance of not only its own populace, but through funding and control of networking and software firms, the entire world at large.
3. Engaged in a cold-war style attack on US industrial and military secrets (the FBI reports over 2,500 active cases against China and Chinese actors at just this point in time alone)

That's not "important"?

I won't even mention China's transgressions with regards to Covid. But it's rather clear the virus didn't come out of a Wuhan food market ... and China was still telling the world the virus didn't spread through human contact several months after they knew it one of the most infectious viruses known.

Funny, you described America in the first 3 points.

I swear American's are blind to their own Government's wrong doing.
 
Good question, but easy to answer. The Chinese authorities knew about Covid, its risks and transmission modes well before the epidemic began. Italy -- relying on information from China and the WHO that Covid didn't spread through human transmission -- did not have that luxury. By the time they knew what China did, Covid had already achieved community spread.

When the outbreak in Wuhan was at its height, China banned flights from the region to elsewhere in China... but allowed international flights to and from Wuhan to continue unchecked. That alone tells you everything you need to know.

That don't answer the question. At all. Classic conspiracy theorist answer.

The question is for America, not Italy. If we indulge in the conspiracy theory that China let the virus spread, which really does them no favours as an export nation whose economy still rely heavily on consumption of their export in "Western countries", the outbreak in Italy is earlier than that of America. Whatever you claimed that China knows and not telling, the world knows before the virus spread to the USA. Arch nemesis Taiwan, who China has no business in helping, and who counts the Americans as its most important ally while being geographically close to mainland China, devised a strategy that combated the spread comparatively well. Five Eyes ally New Zealand and Australia went into lockdown after understanding the spread of the virus, are you saying these Australasia siblings found something big brother America didn't know AND didn't share it? The nerve.

America had the time and the information to deal with Covid properly if they were willing to deal with it properly.

As for the closure of flights. Funny how you failed reading comprehension. Last I looked, America is not under the influence of the CCP, and they can make their own decision. Little old New Zealand was met with fierce indignation from the CCP when they suspended flights from China (and people that been to China), hey that didn't stop them. Are you saying a little pacific country with about many people as South Carolina has more backbone and smarts than the "great" USA? Autonomous country can stop planes from China. Autonomous nations can critically look at what China is doing internally and decide that "well, maybe we should ban flights from Wuhan too". Plenty of places can blame China, but for America, the damage from the (willful if you like) negligence of China pales in comparison the incompetent. You can claim China is driving on the side of the road, but America stepped on the gas pedal to make it a bigger accident. Whereas everyone just press the brakes.
 
TikTok is such a threat because american companies are incapable of securing their platforms/software and puttting clear guidelines to follow aka dont do stupid shi, But apart from that I don't see why trump would touch TikTok besides it blowing up worldwide lol.

Granted he is beyond a joke so it would make sense the clown would do something this random.
 
Not to mention the original strains is traced back to the Italy outbreak anyway. How does a country that is a pacific ocean away and is less dense, become a bigger epidemic center of the pandemic than the country of origin which happens to be the most populous country in the world?
Nope. Covid was circulating in US weeks before the italian outbreak, and in Germany a whole month before Italy...
There are a lot of wrong assumptions about how this mess started.

The point is not where it started, but how governments reacted.
Trump government like Bolsonaro did it the wrongest possible way.
 
If we indulge in the conspiracy theory that China let the virus spread
We don't need to "indulge" it. We know beyond a shadow of a doubt that China let the virus spread. We simply lack direct proof that they did so intentionally ... though the fact they quarantined Wuhan travelers from the rest of China while allowing them to leave for Europe and US is certainly circumstantial evidence.

Taiwan...devised a strategy that combated the spread comparatively well.
Five Eyes ally New Zealand went into lockdown....
Sigh, do you truly not understand that Taiwan and New Zealand are islands? And what epidemiological impact that has? If you have an ocean walling off your borders, and you are aware of a disease before it has achieved community spread, then you can contain it.

America had the time and the information to deal with Covid properly if they were willing to deal with it properly.
The WHO and China both were telling the world that there was no evidence of human-to-human transmission until March. By then, Covid had achieved community spread in the US and several European nations. Italy-- which engaged in strict national lockdowns early on-- has a per-capita death rate much higher than that in the US. Lockdowns are far from a panacea once that community spread has occurred.

America is not under the influence of the CCP, and they can make their own decision. Little old New Zealand was met with fierce indignation from the CCP when they suspended flights from China (and people that been to China), hey that didn't stop them.
Honestly, if you want to debate an issue, at least be aware of the basic parameters of the debate. You are unaware that the US blocked fights from China well before New Zealand did.
 
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