Judge Temporarily Blocks Trump’s TikTok Download Ban
Written by SOURCE on September 28, 2020
On Sunday, a federal judge in Washington, D.C. granted TikTok a temporary reprieve that will allow users to continue downloading it past midnight on Monday, according to NBC News.
Prior to that decision by U.S. District Court Judge Carl Nichols, a Trump-administration-imposed-ban was set to go into effect that would’ve blocked users from adding the app. Note that Nichols’ ruling only had to do with the ban set to be enforced on September 28, and that Nichols did not issue a ruling on a more comprehensive ban set to go into effect on November 12 that would prevent U.S. companies from working with TikTok.
This all comes after the Chinese company that owns TikTok (ByteDance) reportedly reached an agreement with Oracle that would see its headquarters relocate to the United States. That deal would see Oracle oversee TikTok’s operations, with Trump also claiming to have given his “blessing” to the move.
This ongoing business drama now stretches back for almost a year, after the Trump administration first began scrutinizing TikTok due to alleged concerns that China’s government could acquire the user data of Americans who use it. In July 2020 Trump stated that he’d ban the app.
TikTok put out a statement that indicated it was happy with the judge’s decision on Sunday. That statement said that it “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.”
