US govt lawyers call TikTok threat to national security, say Trump has authority to ban

US President Donald Trump administration said on October 23 that it has the authority to ban the use of Chinese-owned ByteDance’s video-sharing app, TikTok in the United States. As per CNET report, Trump lawyers in a court filing reiterated that the popular app poses a national security threat. Therefore, it added that the US government should be permitted to impose the restrictions that are in line with the authority of Trump to safeguard the nation’s security. 

US government lawyers reportedly also said that limiting the authority of the president defies the law and also the past rulings. In the 46-page filing in US District Court Washington DC, the lawyers emphasised that US President “should not be prevented from regulation national-security threats simply because a foreign adversary cloaks its activities within a media company.” With US Elections being just around the corner, Trump lawyers moving to court is the latest development in the administration’s push for seeking a ban of the app. 

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Trump earlier banned TikTok

This comes after a federal court in September barred an executive order by US President Donald Trump that was signed in August. While Trump had restricted any US transactions with the Chinese company, ByteDance saying it “threatens to allow the Chinese Communist Party access to Americans' personal and proprietary information”, the court ruled against it and granted TikTok’s request for a preliminary injunction. 

Trump’s order dated August 14 had pushed ByteDance to sell its operations in America by November 12. This was followed by the potential deal of the video-sharing app with Silicon Valley giant Oracle. The Trump administration has repeatedly noted that TikTok can allow China’s Communist Party to track the location of federal employees as well as contractors. TokTok, however, has denied such accusations and stressed that it has never handed over information to the Chinese government and would deny even when asked. 

ByteDance-owned TikTok has been challenging Trump’s executive order saying that the US President did not follow the traditional process of evidence that the video-sharing app posed an actual threat. The company has also reportedly said that its servers where the information of Americans is stored are located in the United States and Singapore while also questioning the need for a ban since negotiations are underway over its ownership. 

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