Los Angeles, August 25 : Video footage-sharing social networking firm TikTok registered a lawsuit over the Trump administration over an executive order banning any US transactions with its parent firm ByteDance.
Within the 39-page indictment, US President Donald Trump, Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross & US Dept. of Commerce have been listed as defendants, Xinhua press agency recorded.
As per the record, TikTok charged the US officials of stripping the rights of the firm without any proof to justify the severe action, & issuing the order without any due procedure as assured by this 5th Amendment awhile banning the firm with no circular (or) chance to be heard.
Meantime, the record cited remarks from Trump regarding this problem, like proclaiming in a campaign-style information conference that TikTok had “no rights” & that he’d ban the famous software in case the firm didn’t pay amount to the govt to secure the its sanction for any sale. Those words are unconstitutional.
“By insisting that Plaintiffs make a payment to the US Treasury as a condition for the sale of TikTok, the President took Plaintiffs’ property without compensation in violation of the 5th Amendment,” the record stated.
Besides, the indictment stated, by preventing TikTok from functioning within the United States, the executive order violates the firm’s 1st Amendment rights in its code, an expressive means of communication.
The Los Angeles-based tech company argued that the executive order is a misuse of the Intl. Urgency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), authorising the prohibition of operations that haven’t being identified to be “an uncommon & exceptional danger” in this complaint.
TikTok argued that previous presidents utilized power authorized by IEEPA to protect the nation from threats from abroad, involving terrorism & the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, however this executive order seeks to utilize IEEPA over a US firm with hundreds of employees around the nation & to destroy an on-line society spreading video footage content by millions of Americans.
As per the firm, as of Jun 2024, the overall no. of monthly active consumers within the nation soared to 91,937,040, & on the basis of quarterly consumption, 100 mln Americans utilized the application to express themselves & connect with every different.
The executive order has been released “for political reasons rather than due to an ‘uncommon & exceptional danger’ to the United States, that is a condition for the President to exercise his own authority” within the IEEPA, TikTok observed.
The plaintiffs, TikTok Inc. & ByteDance Ltd., seek a declaratory judgement & order invalidating & enjoining the executive order & any executing rules released by this Dept. of Commerce thereafter.
“The President’s executive order is unconstitutional & ultra vires, & should be enjoined,” the record read.