US Judge Temporarily Halts US TikTok Ban

A US federal judge has granted TikTok a preliminary injunction on Sunday. This injunction hereby temporarily halts the Trump administration order that would see a ban on any new TikTok app downloads in the US.

The injunction is likely to have gone into effect at this current time. According to a New York Times report, Judge Carl Nichols of the United States District Court placed the order this weekend, halting the restriction of new app downloads. Had the injunction not been placed, companies such as Apple and Google would be forced to remove TikTok from their app stores. This would also leave users who currently have TikTok installed without means to update the app.

In August, President Trump signed an executive order which gave TikTok parent company ByteDance 90 days to sell its US TikTok operations. The order was placed due to fear of security threats over user data. ByteDance has entered early discussions with Oracle and Walmart to form the TikTok Global division. The US companies would then have a 20 percent stake of the company and would take over the US operations of TikTok.

President Trump has been vocal about disagreeing with the current terms of the agreement. “If we find that they don’t have total control, then we’re not going to approve the deal,” President Trump said in an interview with Fox & Friends last week.

The new preliminary junction should give TikTok a bit more breathing room as it works out the finite details over a US acquisition. After Judge Nichols placed the new order, a TikTok spokesperson said: “We’re pleased that the court agreed with our legal arguments and issued an injunction preventing the implementation of the TikTok app ban,” The spokesperson continues, “We will continue defending our rights for the benefit of our community and employees. At the same time, we will also maintain our ongoing dialogue with the government to turn our proposal, which the president gave his preliminary approval to last weekend, into an agreement.”

The injunction is only temporary and will not block additional restrictions set to take place in November.

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