TikTok gets a second life in the United States temporarily
A second U.S. judge late Monday granted a preliminary injunction preventing the U.S. Department of Commerce from imposing restrictions on the Chinese-owned short video-sharing app TikTok, which would have effectively banned its use in the United States.
U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols in Washington issued an order in a lawsuit filed by ByteDance, owner of TikTok, more than a month after U.S. Judge Wendy Beetlestone in Pennsylvania blocked the same restrictions that were to take effect on the 12th. November in a lawsuit brought by some TikTok Users.
Nichols on September 27 had separately blocked the Commerce Department from banning Apple Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google app stores from offering the app to new users.
A spokesperson for TikTok said he was “happy the court agreed with us and granted a preliminary injunction.”
Nichols, who was appointed to the bench by President Donald Trump last year, said the Commerce Department “likely exceeded” its legal authority by issuing the effective ban on TikTok “and acted arbitrarily and capricious in not considering obvious alternatives. “
The Commerce Department has said it will “vigorously defend” Trump’s August executive order that authorized the restrictions and said it “is fully in accordance with the law and promotes legitimate national security interests. The government will continue to uphold the law. comply with injunctions “.
Nichols’ order bars the agency from banning US data hosting for TikTok, content delivery services, and other technical transactions.
The Trump administration on Friday refused to grant ByteDance a further extension of Trump’s August order requiring it to divest TikTok’s U.S. assets, but talks will continue, Reuters reported.
The Treasury Department said on Friday evening that the government “is engaging with ByteDance to complete divestment and other measures needed to address national security risks.”
The Trump administration maintains that TikTok poses national security concerns because the personal data of American users could be obtained by the Chinese government. TikTok, which has more than 100 million US users, denies the allegation.
Under pressure from the US government, ByteDance has been in talks for months to finalize a deal with Walmart Inc and Oracle Corp to move TikTok’s US assets into a new entity.
A U.S. appeals court will hear arguments on Nichols’ App Store ban injunction on December 14.
