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Although President Donald Trump has signed an executive order banning TikTok from doing business in the U.S., unless the app is purchased by a U.S. company, the video-sharing app is not going down without a fight.
According to NPR, TikTok is prepared to file a federal lawsuit as early as Tuesday in the U.S. District court for the Southern District of California.
An unnamed source that played a key role in the litigation told NPR that TikTok will argue that Trump’s ban is unconstitutional because the company was not given an opportunity to respond to Trump’s accusations.
READ MORE: Trump issues executive order banning TikTok and WeChat
The ban intensifies the pressure on negotiations over the potential sale of the China-based company to Microsoft.
In an interview with Wired, Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft, called the company’s potential deal with TikTok, a “poisoned chalice.”
He added that being a big player in the social media game is not simple and Microsoft would have to deal with a whole new level of content moderation.
Gates suggested, however, that giving Facebook some competition “is probably a good thing,” but “having Trump kill off the only competitor,” is strange.
READ MORE: Trump pauses TikTok ban to allow negotiation of Microsoft acquisition
Popular among teenagers and young adults, the social media app is used as a platform to showcase dances and comedy skits.
In June, thousands of young people reserved tickets to Trump’s Tulsa, Oklahoma rally with no intentions of attending and this coordinated effort was said to have originated from TikTok.
Trump proposed that the U.S. Treasury should get a cut from the TikTok sale, but “no one knows how that’d work,” according to the New York Times.
The White House declined to comment on the expected legal battle when approached for comment by NPR.
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