Mark Zuckerberg reportedly encouraged Trump to crack down on TikTok, and now it's planning to sue
TikTok announced in a Monday blog post that it will sue the Trump administration.
President Trump has repeatedly tossed around the idea of a ban on the Chinese-owned video app, and earlier in August, ordered American companies to stop doing business with TikTok's parent company ByteDance. The order "strips the rights" of TikTok users "without any evidence to justify such an extreme action," TikTok said in its blog post, adding that it "strongly disagree[s] with the administration's position that TikTok is a national security threat. So it will file a lawsuit against the administration, arguing the order violates TikTok's due process rights.
TikTok's announcement comes after The Wall Street Journal reported Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg may have been the root of Trump's threat. In a speech in Washington, D.C. in October, Zuckerberg told Georgetown University students that "TikTok doesn't share Facebook's commitment to freedom of expression," posing a "risk to American values," the Journal writes. He reportedly repeated that message in meetings with Trump and other lawmakers, seemingly convincing them that cracking down on TikTok was a higher priority than regulating Facebook.
More stories from theweek.com
Melania Trump reportedly taped making 'disparaging' remarks about president and his children
FDA chief admits he oversold COVID-19 plasma effectiveness
Hurricane Laura could make landfall in Texas, Louisiana as a Category 3 storm
