TIKTOK has vowed to sue the US Government over Donald Trump's bid to ban the app.
It comes after Trump gave Chinese-owned TikTok just weeks to find a US buyer.
If TikTok isn't snapped up by an American company before November 12, it faces a permanent ban in the USA.
Now TikTok says it will file a lawsuit against the Trump administration, contesting the executive order.
"Even though we strongly disagree with the administration's concerns, for nearly a year we have sought to engage in good faith to provide a constructive solution," said a TikTok spokesperson.
"What we encountered instead was a lack of due process as the administration paid no attention to facts and tried to insert itself into negotiations between private businesses.
"To ensure that the rule of law is not discarded and that our company and users are treated fairly, we have no choice but to challenge the Executive Order through the judicial system."
Trump signed an initial order against TikTok on August 6, invoking a corporate blacklist against trading with Chinese parent firm ByteDance.
Then just a week later, Trump gave ByteDance a September deadline to find a US buyer for TikTok.
This deadline was later extended to November 12, after which point TikTok faces a national ban.
Several tech companies have been linked to a TikTok buy-out, including Microsoft, Apple and Twitter.
A recent report suggested that Microsoft could strike a $30billion deal to buy TikTok in a matter of days.
Earlier this month, Trump warned he could ban the app immediately.
But Trump later backed down after a phone call with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.
The deal is expected to be valued at anywhere from $10billion to $30billion, according to the report.
At the higher end, it would dwarf many major tech acquisitions – including Facebook's 2014 purchase of WhatsApp for $16billion.
But it's still small change for Microsoft, which is currently valued at $1.61trillion on the US stock market.
And at the end of 2019, Microsoft had roughly $135billion in a liquid cash pile.
Part of the deal would also involve Microsoft bringing all of TikTok's code from China to the US within a year.
Microsoft's chief managed to help convince Trump about how beneficial a TikTok buy-out could be for the US.
"We had a great conversation. He called me to see how I felt about it," Trump explained.
"And I said look, it can't be controlled – for security reasons – by China. Too big, too invasive.
"Here's the deal. I don't mind if – whether it's Microsoft or somebody else – a big company, a secure company, a very American company buy it."
He also described TikTok by saying: "The name is hot, the brand is hot."
But his praise of a potential deal came with a major warning: the US Treasury would need to benefit from any deal struck.
It's not clear how this would work, or through what mechanism money would be paid, as usually the Treasury wouldn't gain a portion of a private corporate acquisition.
"I said that a very substantial portion of that price is going to have to come into the Treasury of the United States," said Trump.
"Because we're making it possible for this deal to happen."
He added that an "appropriate deal" would mean "the Treasury…gets a lot of money".
It's still possible that Trump will decide to ban TikTok over national security concerns.
But buying the app could be a huge coup for Microsoft and the US, as TikTok serves more than 100million American users.
It would give Microsoft a better chance of competing with major social media rivals, in particular Facebook.
Meanwhile, President Trump recently joined a TikTok rival app called Triller.
Trump's first video is a promotional clip for his 2020 US Presidential Election campaign.
It begins with a quote of the President saying: "I'm a professional at technology."
This is followed up by Trump saying: "Nobody can do it like me. Nobody."
Triller has seen a huge surge in popularity in recent weeks, as fears of a TikTok ban grow.
It's been downloaded hundreds of times in the past month, and is seen as a safe haven for TikTok refugees.
Triller is based in Los Angeles, but also has offices in New York, Paris, San Francisco, Faro and Orlando.
In other news, TikTok has said it has tens of millions of US users and hundreds of millions of users worldwide.
But while it's considered fun by users, US lawmakers have raised intelligence, national security, and privacy concerns about the company’s ownership.
TikTok has denied allegations that it shares user data with the Chinese government.
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