US Will 'Vigorously Defend' Executive Order to Ban TikTok Despite Court Ruling

US President Donald Trump's administration contends that TikTok poses national security concerns.

By Reuters | Updated: 2 November 2020 11:02 IST

US Will 'Vigorously Defend' Executive Order to Ban TikTok Despite Court Ruling

Talks are ongoing to finalise a preliminary deal for Walmart and Oracle to take stakes in TikTok Global

Highlights

TikTok denied the allegations against it
Beetlestone enjoined agency from barring data hosting in US for TikTok
Hearing to be held on other aspects of blocked Commerce Department order

The US Commerce Department said on Sunday it would "vigorously defend" an executive order that seeks to bar transactions with Chinese-owned short video-sharing app TikTok after a federal judge halted the action.

US District Judge Wendy Beetlestone on Friday blocked the Commerce Department order set to take effect on November 12 that would have effectively barred ByteDance-owned TikTok from operating in the United States.

The Commerce Department said on Sunday it would "comply with the injunction ... but intends to vigorously defend the (executive order) and the Secretary's implementation efforts from legal challenges."

'Bored by All This Drama': TikTok Users Play It Cool Over US Ban Threat

Beetlestone enjoined the agency from barring data hosting within the United States for TikTok, content delivery services and other technical transactions.

President Donald Trump's administration contends that TikTok poses national security concerns as personal data collected on 100 million Americans who use the app could be obtained by China's government. TikTok denies the allegations.

Beetlestone wrote that the "government's own descriptions of the national security threat posed by the TikTok app are phrased in the hypothetical."

TikTok Countersues Rival Video App Triller in Patent Defence

On September 27, US District Judge Carl Nichols in Washington issued a preliminary injunction in a suit brought by ByteDance that stopped the Commerce Department from ordering Apple and Alphabet's Google app stores to remove TikTok for download by new users. That order had been set to take effect later that day.

Nichols is set to hold a hearing on Wednesday on the other aspects of the Commerce Department order that Beetlestone blocked on Friday.

Beetlestone's order, in a suit brought by three TikTok content creators, also blocks the app store download ban.

TikTok Partners With Shopify to Move Into E-Commerce Space

Talks have been ongoing to finalise a preliminary deal for Walmart and Oracle to take stakes in a new company, TikTok Global, that would oversee US operations. Trump said last month the deal had his "blessing."
© Thomson Reuters 2020

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