A District Court judge ruled Thursday that until Friday the Trump Administration either had an order to delay baning Chinese-owned TikTok from US app stores or had to file legal documents justifying the ban.
The US Commerce Department’s order to ban new downloads of the famous short-form video app is scheduled to take effect on Sunday. The Government must file, or postpone, a response to TikTok’s request for a temporary injunction by 11:30 a.m. PT, said Carl Nichols, U.S. District Judge.
If the government does not postpone the download ban on Friday, Nichols said he will hold a Sunday morning hearing to decide whether to approve TikTok’s request to temporarily halt the ban.
In August, President Donald Trump signed an executive order banning any US transaction with ByteDance, the Chinese member of the TikTok business. Trump declared his intention, citing national security concerns, to ban TikTok in August unless it was purchased from a US business.
The Executive Order of Trump claimed that data collected by TikTok “threats to give the Chinese Communist Party access to personal and confidential information of the Americans” and that it could give China to monitor federal employees and business people. TikTok says that it has never turned over US User Data to the Chinese government. Even if requested, TikTok would not.