In what is being seen as a minor reprieve for TikTok, a US judge on Sunday granted a preliminary injunction against a Trump administration order to ban the viral video-sharing app in the country. The order by US District Judge, Carl J. Nichols, is in response to a recent lawsuit filed by TikTok’s parent company, Bytedance. It only applies to the immediate ban that was set to go into effect Sunday night, but does not cover the broader set of restrictions slated to go into effect November 12th.
In an official statement issued following the decision, TikTok said that it was happy with the latest developments. According to a company spokesperson: “We’re pleased that the court agreed with our legal arguments and issued an injunction preventing the implementation of the TikTok app ban. 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”.
On its part, the US Commerce Department said that it would comply with the court’s ruling. According to a press statement released by the department, it has “taken immediate steps to do so, but intends to vigorously defend the E.O. and the secretary’s implementation efforts from legal challenges”.
US President, Donald Trump, last month signed an executive order banning all transactions with Chinese companies WeChat and ByteDance. The ban would have also required Apple and Google to remove the apps from their respective online stores in the US. While the ban originally slated to go into effect September 18th, the US Commerce Department announced that it is delaying it by a week to let ByteDance and Oracle sort out the nitty gritty of the latter’s proposed takeover of TikTok’s US operations.
