A judge pauses Trump’s effort to remove TikTok from app stores.
Federal judge pauses Trump’s effort to ban the Chinese- owned social video platform.
TikTok on Sunday won a significant victory against the Trump administration, when a federal judge ruled in favor of the tech company’s request to delay a ban on the app.
Under the ruling, TikTok will remain available in U. S. mobile app stores and can continue to provide software updates. The company filed a lawsuit this month in Washington, D. C., saying that the administration’s effort to stop new downloads of the app starting Sept. 27 was unconstitutional and could harm its business.
“TikTok is a modern- day version of a town square,” the company’s attorney, John Hall, said at a hearing Sunday. Pulling TikTok from the app stores “would be no different than the government locking the doors to a public forum,” Hall added.
The popular social video app has been under scrutiny by Trump, who has expressed concerns that TikTok, whose parent company, ByteDance, is based in China, could be giving U. S. user information to the Chinese government. TikTok says that it has not done so and that its U. S. user information is stored in Virginia and backed up in Singapore.
The judge’s ruling offers ByteDance some breathing room as the company continues working on a deal to give partial ownership to U. S. partners to satisfy the security issues raised by Trump by Nov. 12 or risk getting banned in the country. The judge did not offer an extension of the Nov. 12 deadline in his order Sunday.
At stake is TikTok’s massive global success and its footprint in L. A.’ s entertainment industry with popular video creators making tens of thousands of dollars each month in brand deals in return for marketing products to their millions of fans.
The directive to remove TikTok from U. S. mobile app stores came from the Commerce Department after an executive order signed by the president Aug. 6.
“The concern here is data security risk and leaving data vulnerable to access from the Chinese government,” Daniel Schwei, an attorney for the Justice Department, said in a hearing Sunday.
But TikTok on Sunday persuaded a federal judge to grant a preliminary injunction barring the Commerce Department’s prohibition on the app.
The company argued that the directive, which would have taken effect Monday, violated TikTok’s constitutional rights for free speech and due process.
It also argued that blocking TikTok software updates, including ones related to security, could put users’ personal information at risk.
“We will continue defending our rights for the benefit of our community and employees,” TikTok said in a statement Sunday.
The Commerce Department in a statement said it will comply with the injunction but plans to legally defend Trump’s executive order.
ByteDance is continuing to work on a deal to address Trump’s security concerns. An early version of the agreement would create a new company called TikTok Global, giving software company Oracle and retail giant Walmart 20% ownership. Oracle would run TikTok Global on Oracle Cloud and TikTok Global would be based in the U. S. Trump has said he approved of the deal in concept. But any deal would need the Chinese government’s approval, and state- run media have expressed their disapproval.