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.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Kathryn is a graduate of Syracuse University, with degrees in magazine journalism and information technology, along with hours to earn another degree after working at SU's independent paper The Daily Orange. She's currently recovering from a horse addiction while living in New York City, and likes to share her extremely dry sense of humor on Twitter.
-
October 5 editorial cartoons
Cartoons Sunday's political cartoons include half-truth hucksters, Capitol lockdown, and more
-
Jaguar Land Rover’s cyber bailout
Talking Point Should the government do more to protect business from the ‘cyber shockwave’?
-
Russia: already at war with Europe?
Talking Point As Kremlin begins ‘cranking up attacks’ on Ukraine’s European allies, questions about future action remain unanswered
-
Electronic Arts to go private in record $55B deal
speed read The video game giant is behind ‘The Sims’ and ‘Madden NFL’
-
New York court tosses Trump's $500M fraud fine
Speed Read A divided appeals court threw out a hefty penalty against President Trump for fraudulently inflating his wealth
-
Trump said to seek government stake in Intel
Speed Read The president and Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan reportedly discussed the proposal at a recent meeting
-
US to take 15% cut of AI chip sales to China
Speed Read Nvidia and AMD will pay the Trump administration 15% of their revenue from selling artificial intelligence chips to China
-
NFL gets ESPN stake in deal with Disney
Speed Read The deal gives the NFL a 10% stake in Disney's ESPN sports empire and gives ESPN ownership of NFL Network
-
Samsung to make Tesla chips in $16.5B deal
Speed Read Tesla has signed a deal to get its next-generation chips from Samsung
-
FCC greenlights $8B Paramount-Skydance merger
Speed Read The Federal Communications Commission will allow Paramount to merge with the Hollywood studio Skydance
-
Tesla reports plummeting profits
Speed Read The company may soon face more problems with the expiration of federal electric vehicle tax credits