(TheLibertyRevolution.com)- Another federal judge has blocked a ban that President Donald Trump wanted to institute on a social media app.
On Sunday, Judge Carl Nichols temporarily blocked an order from the president that would’ve banned the download of the TikTok app from app stores run by Google and Apple. The U.S. government could’ve instituted the ban at the end of Sunday, but they can no longer do so — for now.
Nichols of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, granted an injunction to TikTok against the president’s executive order. A broader ban could still go into effect on November 12 in the United States, though. That ban would make TikTok unusable in the U.S.
In a statement, TikTok said:
“We’re pleased that the court agreed with our legal arguments and issued an injunction preventing the implementation of the TikTop 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.”
Despite this ruling, the United States Commerce Department said it would defend the executive order, which it says is “consistent with the law and promotes legitimate national security interests.”
In a statement, the Commerce Department said:
“The Government will comply with the injunction and has taken immediate steps to do so, but intends to vigorously defend the E.O. and the Secretary’s implementation efforts from legal challenges.”
The government initially said TikTok would need to be removed from app stores in the U.S. by September 20. That deadline was extended to September 27 as a potential deal with Walmart and Oracle seemed to be making progress.
In the meantime, TikTok filed for the injunction.
The attention will turn back to whether that deal will actually go through. Walmart and Oracle were set to take 20% of a new company that will be called TikTok Global. ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok that is based in China, would retain 80% of the company, it said.
Oracle has contested those claims, though, saying ByteDance would have “no ownership” of the new TikTok Global.
The Commerce Department says TikTok, as it’s currently constructed, presents a national security threat to the U.S. Data from American users could easily be sent back to China, it says, although TikTok has denied that it would do that.
As lawyers for the Commerce Department argued in court:
“ByteDance has significant and close ties to the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) which could potentially be leveraged to further their agenda and exact pressure on ByteDance.”
This national security issue is what is at the heart of Trump’s announced ban on the app. He said he would ban the app unless its U.S. interests were sold to an American company.
Trump also announced a ban on the social media app WeChat. A temporary injunction was also placed on the ban of that app by a federal judge recently.
