14 DAY TRIAL // While TikTok continues the takeover talks with Microsoft, the Chinese service isn’t willing to go down so easy, with the company now planning to challenge a recent executive order signed by United States President Donald Trump in court.
More specifically, President Trump announced that two Chinese services, namely WeChat and TikTok, would be banned in the United States, with the latter only allowed to remain available for local users under American ownership.
TikTok’s parent company ByteDance now says that it has no other option than to file a lawsuit against the government order, as all its efforts to comply with the U.S. government results came to no conclusion.
September 15 takeover deadline
In a statement for CNET, ByteDance also accused U.S. Administration of trying to get involved in the negotiations with other parties, most likely Microsoft.
“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,” ByteDance explained.
“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.”
In the meantime, TikTok continues the negotiations with Microsoft, the company that’s believed to be in pole position to take over its U.S. operations. The Redmond-based software giant has already announced a September 15 deadline for the negotiations to come to a conclusion, with the company explaining that it’s indeed discussing the purchase not only with TikTok parent company ByteDance but also with officials of the United States government.