TikTok and its employees prepare to fight Trump over app ban

TikTok and its US employees are planning to take President Donald Trump's ministration to court over his sweeping order to ban popular video app, according to a lawyer preparing one of lawsuits. employees' legal challenge to Trump's executive order will be separate from a pending lawsuit from company that owns app, though both will argue that order is unconstitutional, said Mike Godwin, an internet policy lawyer representing employees.

Trump last week ordered sweeping but vague bans on dealings with Chinese owners of TikTok and messaging app WeChat, saying y are a threat to US national security, foreign policy and ecomy. TikTok order would take effect in September, but it remains unclear what it will mean for apps' 100 million U.S. users, many of m teenrs or young ults who use it to post and watch short-form videos.

It's also unclear if it will make it illegal for TikTok to pay its roughly 1,500 workers in U.S., which is why some of m came to Godwin for help, he said. order would prohibit “any transaction by any person” with TikTok and its Chinese parent company ByteDance.

“Employees correctly recognize that ir jobs are in danger and ir payment is in danger right w,” Godwin said.

TikTok didn't return multiple requests for comment this week. It said in a statement Friday that it was “shocked by recent Executive Order, which was issued without any due process.” Fifth and 14th Amendments to U.S. Constitution safeguard life, liberty and property from arbitrary government action lacking “due process of law.” Microsoft is in talks to buy parts of TikTok, in a potential sale that's being forced under Trump's threat of a ban. TikTok said it spent nearly a year trying to eng in “good faith” with U.S. government to dress its concerns.

“What we encountered inste was that ministration paid attention to facts, dictated terms of an agreement without going through standard legal processes, and tried to insert itself into negotiations between private businesses,” company's statement said.

White House didn't immediately return a request for comment Thursday on pending challenges. Godwin said he was retained by Patrick Ryan, who joined TikTok from Google earlier this year as a technical program manr. Ryan posted a public fundraising pitch on GoFundMe this week to raise money for attorneys who can “fight this unconstitutional taking.”

“This is unprecedented,” Ryan wrote.

“And it's frankly really uncool.”

Unlike or Chinese tech companies targeted by Trump, such as telecom giant Huawei, TikTok's widespre popularity among Americans ds a layer of complexity to its legal and political challenges. looming ban has anyed TikTok users, some of m Trump supporters like Pam Graef of Metairie, Louisiana.