Experts call US ban against TikTok as wake-up call

A TikTok logo is displayed on a smartphone in this illustration taken 6 January 2020. Reuters

Some experienced US lawyers predict that TikTok hardly has the opportunity to win the lawsuit that the company has filed over the US government’s executive order of banning any transaction with its parent company ByteDance, but the move is not unnecessary.

“We cannot at this point predict the outcome of the litigation with certainty, a US court will be reluctant to rule against the President on an issue of national security,” Dan Roules, the managing partner of the Shanghai Office of Squire Patton Boggs, told Xinhua news agency on Tuesday.

Roules is a business lawyer who focuses on helping Chinese companies understand and cope with legal, political, and other issues while investing abroad. He has spent his entire career at Squire Patton Boggs, one of the 30 largest law firms in the world.

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“Traditionally the US courts have tended to respect and defer to the US executive branch on such matters,” he said. “The evidentiary requirements and burden of proof on TikTok will be high.”

Earlier this month, the administration of president Donald Trump cited the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) and issued executive orders banning any US transactions with TikTok and WeChat, starting in 45 days.

Bobby Chesney, a professor from the University of Texas School of Law, also gave a very pessimistic account in his blog posted Tuesday after analyzing each of the claims that TikTok raised in its indictment.