TikTok US ban has been temporarily blocked by a federal judge
- A federal judge has temporarily blocked a ban on the TikTok app in the US.
- The ban should come into effect on Sunday at the end of the day.
- Instead, the app will remain available while the court continues to investigate the case.
TikTok users and creators in the US can just rest for now. The planned ban of the popular mobile social networking app in the USA ordered by the Trump administration has now been blocked by a federal judge, at least for the time being.
Originally, the TikTok ban was supposed to come into effect on Sunday at midnight east time by order of the trade department. However after NPRU.S. District Court Justice for the District of Columbia, Carl Nichols, decided to end the ban.
Continue reading: Best alternatives for TikTok
Judge Nichols heard arguments by phone on Sunday from attorneys for the Trump administration as well as attorneys representing TikTok. TikT0k’s lawyers argued that blocking access to the app violated the company’s freedom of speech. However, US Department of Justice lawyers claimed TikTok was “the most immediate national security threat.” They claimed the app, owned by Chinese company ByteDance, could have data collected from its users by the Chinese government. TikTok has repeatedly denied that this would happen.
In the end, however, Judge Nichols chose TikTok. There is no word on why he made that decision. This means that TikTok can continue to be available to US users while a full court hearing continues on the case.
In the meantime, we are still waiting to see if a deal to buy TikTok’s US assets will actually come about. The Trump administration has basically approved a deal between Oracle, Walmart and TikTok. However, the agreement is not final. Oracle could end up getting a 12.5% stake in TikTok’s US operations, and Walmart could get a 7.5% stake under the current terms of the contract.
