TikTok has been struggling to stay in business in the US ever since President Donald Trump issued an executive order threatening to ban the social media app citing security concerns. The Chinese app’s parent company ByteDance later managed to secure a deal with Walmart and Oracle, letting the American companies have a 20% stake in the company to meet the President’s requirements.
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TikTok Appeals to US Court Against Trump’s Ban
This only extended the deadline for the ban by a small margin. As a result, both TikTok and WeChat, the other Chinese social media app that Trump threatened to ban, appealed to the court to block the ban temporarily. The US District Judge Carl J. Nichols filed his decision publicly, granting TikTok’s appeal to ignore the ban that was set to go in effect on Sunday. However, he refused to halt the second aspect of the ban meant to take place on November 12.
He questioned whether the social media app was given enough opportunity to defend itself against the President’s executive ban. He said:
This was a largely a unilateral decision with very little opportunity for plaintiffs to be heard.
As a response, the US Commerce Department said that it will comply with the judge’s decisions, but also added that the executive order is “fully consistent with the law and promotes legitimate national security interests” and they will defend it from legal challenges.
