TikTok to Challenge Trump Administration Over Executive Order

Jason M. Waite, a partner at Alston Bird, said the order raised serious questions, including whether the provision could be used to target people or companies registered in the United States, even if they had a foreign parent company.

“Using this authority against a Hezbollah leader does not present litigation risk like using this authority against a major global technology company,” he said. He added that the odds would be in the president’s favor, but that the administration had still opened itself up to the possibility of having its economic powers curtailed.

In addition to an executive order against TikTok, Mr. Trump also issued an order to cease operations of WeChat, the chat and commerce app that is owned by the Chinese company Tencent and is highly popular in Asia. Similar to TikTok, Mr. Trump gave Tencent a 45-day deadline to wind down its operations in the United States.

But as Mr. Trump has ramped up his attacks against Chinese-backed companies, the fallout has spilled over into the West. Dozens of American companies rely on partnerships with WeChat and Tencent to do business globally; a cancellation of the service in the United States could disrupt corporate America.

As for TikTok, the company appears to have a stronger potential backup plan than Tencent’s WeChat: It is in discussions with multiple suitors for a potential sale. The White House has repeatedly pressed TikTok to store American user data on U.S. servers, something that a sale to an American company is likely to accomplish.

But TikTok also faces continued pressure from Facebook as advertisers flock to other social media platforms while TikTok is embroiled in controversy.

After early attempts to purchase the video app Musical.ly — a company that was eventually joined with TikTok — Facebook instead has tried to clone TikTok’s main video features. In 2018, Facebook created Lasso, a stand-alone app similar to TikTok. And in June, Instagram introduced Reels, a TikTok-like feature.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/22/technology/tiktok-lawsuit-trump-executive-order.html