An advertisement for TikTok is seen in Shanghai in August. Photo: VCG

A US TikTok employee is reportedly seeking to file a lawsuit against US President Donald Trump's administration, but observers said there is little chance of winning the case. However, the company could find other legal strategies to defend its rights, they said.

Patrick Ryan, a TikTok employee in the US, has started a crowdfunding campaign to raise funds to sue the Trump administration over the executive order forcing the sale of the US branch of the company.

"This restriction means that approximately 1,500 ByteDance and TikTok employees in the US will lose their paychecks as of September 20, 2020, because 'any transaction by any person' is illegal after the order goes into effect," read a statement on his GoFundMe page.

By 7 pm Wednesday (Beijing time), Ryan had got donations worth $13,744 from 75 donors. That is nearly half of the money he plans to raise. He said that he hoped to raise money to file a lawsuit so that a court can order the US government to change the order so that TikTok can still pay its employees.

Hao Junbo, chief lawyer at the HAO Law Firm in Beijing, told the Global Times on Wednesday there is only a slim hope that the employee could win such a lawsuit.

"The Trump administration aims to ban TikTok on the premise of 'national security,' which gives the president much more discretion. Hence, judges would apply more loose criteria in assessing the case," Hao said.

Bian Yongzu, a research fellow with the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at the Renmin University of China, told the Global Times that TikTok could come up with other legal strategies to defend its rights.

"Since there is so much uncertainty over whether Trump will be re-elected in the upcoming US presidential election, TikTok should try to delay its forced sale and seek other possibilities after the election," Bian said.

The company could take advantage of common American people's disagreement with Trump's use of national power in cracking down on a foreign firm to objectively argue for its rights.