"We see in the unreasonably harsh restrictive actions of the American side in relation to one of the largest social networks TikTok a violation of a wide range of Washington's international obligations to ensure the free and wide distribution of all forms of information, the free choice of its sources, as well as encouragement of cooperation in this area," the message of the Russian ministry.
The ban on American citizens from cooperating with the Chinese company ByteDance, which owns TikTok, is based on unsubstantiated accusations, they stressed, adding that this is happening as part of an aggressive coercion to sell the social network to American corporations.
The Foreign Ministry pointed out that the actions of the US authorities violate the WTO rules, and the attempt of the Washington establishment "to justify such an unceremonious twisting of arms to a Chinese competitor" in order to take over it looks especially cynical.
The ministry called on Washington to reconsider its methods of fighting to maintain the monopoly of American IT giants in the international segment of social networks.
On August 7, American leader Donald Trump signed a decree that will take effect 45 days after publication, prohibiting American companies and individuals in US jurisdiction from conducting any transactions with ByteDance, which owns TikTok, or its subsidiaries.
Trump also demanded that the US division of TikTok be sold to Microsoft or another US company by September 15 to avoid a ban in the country.
TikTok responded to Trump's decree.