TikTok app to launch legal action against Donald Trump over ban
New York: Video app TikTok said it will wage a legal fight against the Trump administration's efforts to ban the popular, Chinese-owned service over national-security concerns.
TikTok, which is owned by China's ByteDance, insisted Monday that it is not a national-security threat and that the government is acting without evidence or due process. The company said it will file suit against the government later on Monday in federal court in California. A copy of the complaint could not be obtained.
President Donald Trump has issued two executive orders in August, first a sweeping but unspecified ban on any transaction with ByteDance, to take effect within 45 days. He then ordered ByteDance to sell assets used to support TikTok in the US.
Over past year, TikTok has tried to put distance between its app, which it says has 100 million US users, and its Chinese owners. It installed a former top Disney executive as its American CEO and named two other Americans chief security officer and general counsel.
TikTok has also said it is willing to sell its US operations and has held talks with Microsoft with to buy parts of its English-language app. Other companies and investors have reportedly expressed interest as well.
Both Republican and Democratic lawmakers have shared concerns about TikTok that ranged from its vulnerability to censorship and misinformation campaigns to the safety of user data and children's privacy. But the administration has provided no specific evidence that TikTok has made US users' data available to the Chinese government.
Instead, officials point to the hypothetical threat that lies in the Chinese government's ability to demand cooperation from Chinese companies. TikTok says it has not shared US user data with the Chinese government and would not do so, and that it does not censor videos at the request of Chinese authorities.
In excerpts of from its forthcoming complaint, TikTok said it has protected US user data by storing it in the US and Singapore, not China, and by erecting software barriers that help ensure that TikTok stores its US user data separately from the user data of other ByteDance products.
The company says Trump's August 6 order banning TikTok with no notice or opportunity to be heard" violated its Fifth Amendment due-process rights.
It also says that the order is not acting based on a bona fide national emergency and seeks to ban activities that have not been found to be "an unusual and extraordinary threat, which it says is required by the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, which Trump cited as one of the bases for his order.
Getting a court to overturn the government's determination that it is a national-security threat would be very difficult, said Christian Davis, a Washington lawyer with Akin Gump whose practice focuses on foreign investment and international trade.
The administration has significant discretion with national-security issues, he said. While due-process claims might be easier to argue, it's not clear what TikTok could gain. He said the company could possibly win a delay in the order's implementation or force a rewrite of the order to address concerns.
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Petrol pump worker killed as SUV hits motorcycle head-on in Gurugram
Gurugram (PTI): A petrol pump worker died after an SUV rammed into his motorcycle in the Sushant Lok area here, police said on Thursday.
The accused driver fled the scene, leaving the vehicle after the accident. An FIR has been registered at the Sushant Lok police station, they said.
According to police, the accident occurred on Wednesday afternoon when Mukesh was travelling from Sector 44 to Sushant Lok on Vyapar Kendra Road for some work.
Near Vyapar Kendra, a white Thar coming from the wrong side at high speed hit his motorcycle head-on, leaving him critically injured, they said.
The driver fled the scene, leaving the vehicle behind, police added.
Eyewitnesses claimed the vehicle had no number plates either at the front or rear.
Locals took Mukesh to a private hospital, where he died during treatment, police said. He was a resident of Rohta Patti in Palwal and worked at a petrol pump in Sector 44.
An FIR was registered against the unidentified driver, based on a complaint lodged by his brother Ashok. The body was handed over to the family after a post-mortem on Thursday, police said.
“The Thar vehicle has been seized from the spot. CCTV footage from the area is being examined, and the driver will be arrested soon,” a Gurugram police spokesperson said.
