US government : The Trump administration yesterday appealed a federal judge’s order blocking restrictions that would have effectively barred the use of short video-sharing app TikTok in the United States.
The government has cited national security concerns in its targeting of TikTok, arguing that the personal data of US users could be obtained by China’s government. TikTok, which has over 100 million users in the US, denies the allegation.
In a Dec. 7 ruling, US District Court Judge Carl Nichols in Washington issued an order that prevented the Commerce Department from barring data hosting for TikTok within the US, content delivery services and other technical transactions that TikTok-owner Bytedance said would have prevented the use of the app in the US.
The Justice Department said it was appealing Nichols’ order to the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.
A separate US appeals court is set to hear an appeal in February of an October ruling by US district judge Wendy Beetlestone in Pennsylvania, who blocked the same restrictions that had been set to take effect on Nov. 12.
Officials briefed on the matter told Reuters it is increasingly unlikely the government will resolve the fate of TikTok in the US before President Donald Trump leaves office on Jan. 20.
In a separate ruling in September, Nichols issued an order blocking the Commerce Department from requiring Apple Inc and Alphabet’s Google to remove the TikTok app from their stores.
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A US appeals court in Washington heard the government’s appeal of that ruling two weeks ago.
Earlier this month, the Trump administration opted not to grant ByteDance a new extension of an order issued by the president in August requiring the company to divest TikTok’s US assets. That gave the Justice Department the power to enforce the divestiture order once the deadline expired.
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