SAN FRANCISCO — TikTok, the short-form viral video app, asked for a preliminary injunction against the Trump administration on Wednesday, a legal maneuver aimed at protecting the company’s service in the United States against a potential ban. TikTok, which is owned by the Chinese internet company ByteDance, has lately been working to complete a deal that would keep it operating in the United States. In August, President Trump signed executive orders effectively mandating that ByteDance sell TikTok’s U.S. operations or risk halting its transactions in the country. The White House has positioned TikTok’s American presence as a national security threat. On Saturday, Mr. Trump said he had “blessed” a proposed deal among TikTok, Oracle and Walmart, under which the two American companies would get a 20 percent stake in a new entity called TikTok Global.

Source: New York Times September 23, 2020 20:12 UTC