U.S. Judge Blocks Trump Administration’s Download Ban of TikTok

Federal judge Carl Nichols blocked the Trump administration’s order to ban the download of TikTok in the U.S. on Sunday, less than four hours before the order was to take effect.

The judge granted TikTok a temporary injunction against the download ban. However, he also denied the request to extend the Nov. 12 deadline for the prohibited transactions, which could also make the app virtually unusable after that time.

During the emergency hearing on Sunday morning, an attorney representing TikTok said the ban violated the freedom of speech and due process. But lawyers for the U.S. government insisted that the Chinese owned company TikTok would threaten American users’ data security, which is an “immediate danger” to the nation.

TikTok stated that they were “pleased” with the injunction, and they would continue defending their rights and maintain their ongoing dialogue with the government.

Vanessa Pappas, the general manager of TikTok, also said the company was happy to have the injunction of implementing the ban. They would continue to seek to protect the rights of their users, partners, artists, employees, businesses, and creators.

The U.S. Commerce Department stated that it would continue to defend the executive order to protect national security interests, but “the government will comply with the injunction and has immediate steps to do so.”

SEE ALSO: US Judge Temporarily Halts Trump Administration’s WeChat Ban

Earlier this month, the U.S. Commerce Department announced that TikTok downloads would be banned on Sept. 20. Last week, after President Trump gave his blessing to the tentative deal among TikTok, ByteDance, Oracle, and Walmart, the Commerce Department delayed the deadline of the download ban to Sept. 27 because of the “recent positive development.”