The newly established anti-corruption group filed a lawsuit To President Donald Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi, TikTok’s U.S. operations sold to government-backed investor group.
The lawsuit, brought by the law firm Public Integrity Project, which seeks to raise the “reputational cost of corruption in the United States,” argues that the deal violates laws aimed at preventing the spread of Chinese government propaganda and enriches President Trump’s allies.
The law, signed by then-President Joe Biden in 2024, stipulated that Chinese company ByteDance could not distribute TikTok in the United States unless it found a U.S.-based corporate presence by the day before Donald Trump returned to office. This law was upheld by the Supreme Court.
“The law was clear, but it was never enforced,” the lawsuit, filed Thursday in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, says. “Shortly after the sale deadline passed, President Trump issued an executive order purportedly granting an extension to the search for a domestic owner for TikTok and directed the attorney general not to enforce the law.”
The Department of Justice declined to comment, and TikTok US did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The plaintiffs in this case are two software engineers from California. One is a shareholder in Alphabet Inc., YouTube’s parent company, and the other is a shareholder in Alphabet Inc., YouTube’s parent company. The other is a shareholder in Meta Platforms, Inc., Instagram’s parent company. Both claim they suffered financially because the law was not enforced.
Brendan Ballou, CEO of the Public Integrity Project and a former Justice Department prosecutor, told NBC News that the deal with President Trump is bad for TikTok users and the country.
“The original motivation for this law was to prevent the Chinese government from imposing propaganda on American audiences,” Barrow said. “The deal the president has approved is the worst deal possible, because right now ByteDance continues to own the algorithm, which means ByteDance can censor content it doesn’t like, but it also means Oracle can control the data and censor information it doesn’t like. The truth is, this is a terrible situation for users, and it would be terrible for free speech on the platform.”
playing cards signed an executive order in September Paving the way to a deal, and the White House and China An agreement has been reached that gives control of TikTok’s U.S. operations to a group of investors backed by President Trump. At the beginning of this year.
The deal included investors such as “Oracle, MGX, an affiliate of Susquehanna International Group, LLP, and General Atlantic,” which the lawsuit alleges “has close ties to the President and, at times, has personally enriched him.”
Mr. Trump has faced criticism over the deal, and the complaint alleges that Oracle co-founder and chairman Larry Ellison “previously hosted a $100,000-per-person fundraiser for Mr. Trump at Mr. Ellison’s residence.” Ellison and his son, David Ellison, “purchased CBS News, and Ellison assured President Trump that he would create a more conservative news organization.” David Ellison, with his father’s support, said, “Currently, we are in the process of purchasing Warner Bros. Discovery, which would require approval from the Trump administration.”
This lawsuit is the first of its kind brought by the United States. public integrity projectreleased this year. Former Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.), who serves on the project’s advisory committee, said the group is “uniquely focused on litigating to stop the explosion of corruption in our country.”