On Sunday evening, Judge Carl Nichols of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia temporarily blocked the Trump administration’s TikTok ban. The administration had initially wanted to block downloads of the Chinese based app beginning September 20. However, the Department of Commerce had delayed the ban until September 27. Now, the ruling from Nichols has delayed the ban even further.
The White House has been campaigning for the app’s removal of U.S. app stores because they claim it represents a threat to national security. As a result, President Donald Trump has pushed for the app’s parent company, ByteDance, to sell its American firms to an American company by November. Earlier this month, it appeared that ByteDance was nearing a deal with Oracle and Walmart to form TikTok Global. Unfortunately, the deal is now at a standstill as there are conflicting reports regarding ownership.
“We’re pleased that the court agreed with our legal arguments and issued an injunction preventing the implementation of the TikTok app ban,” TikTok said after Judge Nichols issued his ruling.
“We will continue defending our rights for the benefit of our community and employees. At the same time, we will also maintain our ongoing dialogue with the government to turn our proposal, which the President gave his preliminary approval to last weekend, into an agreement.”
Trump has not yet issued a statement regarding the temporary ruling.
