TikTok ban halted by federal judge
A federal judge has temporarily blocked President Donald Trump’s executive order that would have banned the popular video-sharing app TikTok from U.S. app stores. The ruling came just hours before the ban was set to take effect on Sunday.
The federal judge granted a preliminary injunction against the order, citing concerns about the First Amendment rights of TikTok users. The judge said that the ban would likely cause irreparable harm to the app’s users, many of whom use it to express themselves and communicate with others.
The Trump administration had argued that TikTok posed a national security threat because of its ties to the Chinese government. The administration had ordered TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to sell its U.S. operations or face a ban.
TikTok has been at the center of a geopolitical standoff between the U.S. and China, with both countries imposing restrictions on each other’s technology companies. The app has been downloaded over 100 million times in the U.S. and has become especially popular among young people.
The ruling is a major victory for TikTok, which had filed a lawsuit challenging the ban. The company argued that the ban was unconstitutional and exceeded the president’s authority. TikTok also said that it had made extensive efforts to address the administration’s concerns about national security.
The legal battle over TikTok is far from over, as the Trump administration can appeal the judge’s ruling. In the meantime, TikTok will remain available for download in U.S. app stores.