Donald Trump's US government has once again asserted its grievances against TikTok, which it could ban on November 12 if the social network remains in the fold of the Chinese group ByteDance.
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"
The public interest demands that the authority of the president and his right to block economic transactions with a foreign entity in the midst of a declared national security crisis be restored
," hammer the lawyers for the US administration in an argument surrendered to Washington court on Friday.
At the end of September, a judge refused to allow the Ministry of Commerce to remove TikTok from mobile application download platforms.
This was to be the first step in the application of a presidential decree of August 6, where Donald Trump evokes the risk of transfers of user data to China, describes TikTok as a threat to "
national security
" which will be banned , unless it comes under the American fold.
The judge recognized the government's goal - "to
prevent China from accessing data and influencing content on TikTok
" - but added, in agreement with the app, that the government bans could be considered "
indirect 'personal communications' or 'information exchange' regulations
”.
However, this type of regulation is not included in the framework of the special economic powers (IEEPA) invoked by Donald Trump to ban the platform.
Read also: Chinese apps are expanding abroad to avoid a TikTok-style fate
But given the relationship between TikTok and the Chinese government, "
the risks to national security would be the same even if TikTok did not host any expression activity
," says the Trump administration.
"
The president should not be prevented from regulating threats against national security simply because the foreign adversary conceals his activities in a media company
", continue the lawyers to justify the recourse to the IEEPA.
The restrictions they want to impose would prohibit US companies from providing services to TikTok, such as online hosting.
The app, which has 100 million users in the United States, could therefore no longer work in the country.
TikTok has always defended itself against the slightest transfer of data to China.
Its servers, where user information is stored, are located in the United States and Singapore.
The platform has been fighting for months to prove its foothold in the United States and is negotiating with American companies.
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