TikTok and its employees prepare to fight Trump over app ban
Washington: TikTok and its US employees are planning to take President Donald Trump's administration to court over his sweeping order to ban the popular video app, according to a lawyer preparing one of the lawsuits.
The employees' legal challenge to Trump's executive order will be separate from a pending lawsuit from the company that owns the app, though both will argue that the order is unconstitutional, said Mike Godwin, an internet policy lawyer representing the employees.
Trump last week ordered sweeping but vague bans on dealings with the Chinese owners of TikTok and messaging app WeChat, saying they are a threat to US national security, foreign policy and the economy.
The TikTok order would take effect in September, but it remains unclear what it will mean for the apps' 100 million US users, many of them teenagers or young adults who use it to post and watch short-form videos.
It's also unclear if it will make it illegal for TikTok to pay its roughly 1,500 workers in the US, which is why some of them came to Godwin for help, he said.
The order would prohibit any transaction by any person with TikTok and its Chinese parent company ByteDance. Employees correctly recognize that their jobs are in danger and their payment is in danger right now, Godwin said.
TikTok said in a statement last week that it was shocked by the recent Executive Order, which was issued without any due process. It declined to comment on Thursday on whether it is pursuing its own lawsuit.
We have no involvement with and are not coordinating on the employee-led initiative, said TikTok spokeswoman Hilary McQuaide said via email. "We respect the rights of employees to engage in concerted activity to seek due process of law.
The Fifth and 14th Amendments to the US Constitution safeguard life, liberty and property from arbitrary government action lacking due process of law.
Microsoft is in talks to buy parts of TikTok, in a potential sale that's being forced under Trump's threat of a ban.
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany defended Trump's TikTok and WeChat orders on Thursday, telling reporters he was exercising his emergency authority under a 1977 law enabling the president to regulate international commerce to address unusual threats.
The administration is committed to protecting the American people from all cyber threats and these apps collect significant amounts of private data on users, said McEnany, adding that the Chinese government can access and use such data.
TikTok said it spent nearly a year trying to engage in good faith with the US government to address these concerns.
What we encountered instead was that the Administration paid no attention to facts, dictated terms of an agreement without going through standard legal processes, and tried to insert itself into negotiations between private businesses, the company's statement said.
Godwin said he was retained by Patrick Ryan, who joined TikTok from Google earlier this year as a technical program manager. Ryan posted a public fundraising pitch on GoFundMe this week to raise money for attorneys who can fight this unconstitutional taking. This is unprecedented, Ryan wrote. And it's frankly really uncool.
Unlike other Chinese tech companies targeted by Trump, such as telecom giant Huawei, TikTok's widespread popularity among Americans adds a layer of complexity to its legal and political challenges. The looming ban has annoyed TikTok users, some of them Trump supporters like Pam Graef of Metairie, Louisiana.
The 53-year-old fitness instructor found nearly instant TikTok fame after downloading the app this summer and posting a video of herself dancing frenetically in a kitchen as someone pretending to be her embarrassed daughter shouts that she's doing it wrong. The video has nearly 3.5 million views.
I don't want it to be banned. It's just a blast, Graef said. It's a way for me to promote my virtual training and virtual classes. She said Trump won't lose her vote over this, but she doesn't understand all the fuss about the app's Chinese ownership.
What are they gaining by spying on us? Graef said. We're just doing stupid videos and having fun. The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday that, until late last year, the TikTok app was able to track users of Android phones without their consent by collecting unique phone identifiers in a way that skirted privacy safeguards set by Google.
TikTok responded that the technique it used is a common way to prevent fraud and said it no longer collects the unique identifier.
The company has repeatedly said that the way it collects data is typical for thousands of mobile apps. We have made clear that TikTok has never shared user data with the Chinese government, nor censored content at its request, said its statement last week.
Trump's actions follow the lead of India, which has expressed similar security concerns and earlier this summer banned TikTok and dozens of other Chinese apps amid a military standoff between the two countries.
Godwin said the employees' legal challenge will be focused on worker rights, not on the national security claims underlying Trump's order.
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BJP Min. Vijayvargiya trolled for riding scooter without helmet amid water contamination crisis
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Indore: Madhya Pradesh Minister and senior BJP leader Kailash Vijayvargiya has come under criticism after videos surfaced showing him riding a scooter without a helmet and allegedly without a registration number during his visit to Bhagirathpura, which is hit by a severe contaminated water crisis.
The incident has triggered widespread online backlash and contributed to the growing criticism of the state government's handling of the crisis.
This comes a day after Vijayvargiya was caught on camera using objectionable language while responding to questions from a TV Journalist.
Vijayvargiya had arrived at Bhagirathpura riding a scooter to interact with residents and distribute cheques of ₹2 lakh each to the families of seven deceased persons.
However, the visit saw strong resistance from locals, particularly women, who expressed anger in front of the minister.
Videos of the confrontation were posted on social media by Madhya Pradesh Congress president Jitu Patwari.
In one of the clips, a woman is heard saying that dirty water has been supplied for the last two years and that repeated complaints to the BJP councillor had not resolved the issue.
Patwari, in a post on X, wrote that the entire locality was suffering while the minister “did not even listen to the sister’s words.”
गंदे पानी से 13 मौतों के बाद जब कैबिनेट मंत्री कैलाश विजयवर्गीय अपनी विधानसभा के लोगों से मिलने पहुंचे, तब एक बहन ने उनकी पोल खोल दी।
— Jitendra (Jitu) Patwari (@jitupatwari) January 1, 2026
महिला ने बताया कि पिछले दो वर्षों से गंदा पानी आ रहा है। इस बारे में भाजपा पार्षद को बार बार बताया गया, लेकिन आज तक समस्या का समाधान नहीं हुआ।… pic.twitter.com/4iUsd8omux
Social media users troll Vijayvargiya
“Dear @MPPoliceDeptt, He is Cabinet Minister Kailash Vijayvargiya. He wasn’t wearing a helmet, and the scooter he was using had no number plate,” wrote @NalinisKitchen.
“Kailash Vijayvargiya is in PR Damage control mode. He got so excited that he went on a scooty without helmet & ended up exposing the pathetic pothole and dirt filled road of Indore, city in a state that BJP is in power for almost 20 years now. Self Goal,” wrote @RoshanKrRaii.
“PR damage control turned into a reality check. One scooty ride by Kailash Vijayvargiya exposed Indore’s broken roads, potholes, and dirt—after 2 decades of BJP rule. When optics fail, truth shows up. Self-goal,” wrote another user.
“Look at the filthy streets under the jurisdiction of this incompetent MLA @KailashOnline. On top of that, he roams around the dirty streets in unregistered vehicles without helmets like a goon,” said another post.
10 deaths reported, over 1,400 affected in Bhagirathpura
Indore Mayor Pushyamitra Bhargava said on Friday that he had received information about 10 deaths caused by a diarrhoea outbreak linked to contaminated drinking water in Bhagirathpura.
However, local residents have claimed that at least 14 people, including a six-month-old infant, have died due to the health crisis. The health department has not officially confirmed these claims.
According to reports, a leak was found in the main drinking water supply pipeline near a police outpost in Bhagirathpura, at a spot where a toilet has been constructed. The leakage led to contamination of the water supply.
Over the past nine days, more than 1,400 people have been affected by vomiting and diarrhea in the area.
A health department official, citing the situation till Thursday night, said that 272 patients were admitted to hospitals, of whom 71 have been discharged. At present, 201 patients are hospitalised, and 32 of them are undergoing treatment in intensive care units.
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