Hi there,
Scott Nover here, filling in for Sara Jerde this week, who is on a much-deserved break (she keeps the wheels turning here, as you surely know).
As you might have read in our coverage, TikTok, your kids' favorite social media app, has been in hot water with the Trump administration for weeks.
President Donald Trump said he wants to "ban" the app and issued two executive orders, essentially trying to force parent company ByteDance to sell TikTok to an American company (like Microsoft).
But yesterday, TikTok finally clapped back, as the teens say. The social media company filed a lawsuit in federal court that alleges the president's Aug. 6 executive order violates the company's First Amendment free speech rights and their Fifth Amendment due process rights. It also says the law that undergirds the executive order shouldn't actually apply to them.
The lawsuit, which names Trump and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross as defendants, claims the order is unconstitutional and, furthermore, serves as "pretext for furthering the president's broader campaign of anti-China rhetoric in the run-up to the U.S. election."
It's a bold and far-reaching suit that defends TikTok's data security practices (again claiming they do not share U.S. user data with China) while carefully spelling out numerous ways that the administration failed to hear them out, engage with them and offer the possibility of recourse.
We've been following this debacle closely and will continue to do so. It's a case that has massive implications not only for the social media marketplace but also for how America treats foreign technology companies amid an escalating trade war with China.
What else we're covering:
Give me a heads up on news tips and interesting items at scott.nover@adweek.com.
Please consider supporting our journalism with an Adweek Pro Subscription and gain full access to all of Adweek's essential coverage and resources.
