NEW YORK/WASHINGTON Nov 11,2020: ByteDance, the Chinese parent company of video-sharing app TikTok, filed a petition late on Tuesday with a U.S. Appeals Court challenging a Trump administration order set to take effect on Thursday requiring it to divest TikTok.
President Donald Trump in an Aug. 14 order directed ByteDance to divest the app within 90 days, which falls on Thursday. The Trump administration contends TikTok poses national security concerns as the personal data of U.S. users could be obtained by China’s government. TikTok, which has over 100 million U.S. users, denies the allegations.
In the petition filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, ByteDance said it is seeking a court review of the divestment order, claiming that the order and a finding by a U.S. agency that TikTok represented a security threat were unlawful and violated rights under the U.S. Constitution.
ByteDance, which has been in talks for a deal with Walmart Inc and Oracle Corp to shift TikTok’s U.S. assets into a new entity, also said it is requesting a 30-day extension on the Aug. 14 divestment order, so that it can finalize terms of the deal.
