Trump's TikTok download ban temporarily blocked by U.S. federal judge

In what can be described as a big setback for the Trump administration, a federal judge in Washington has granted a preliminary injunction to TikTok, blocking the app's ban from Apple and Google's app stores in the U.S (via The Verge). However, U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols hasn't blocked the restrictions on the app by the Commerce Department, which will go into effect on November 12.

President Donald Trump declared TikTok a "national emergency" on August 6 and said that the app would be banned in the country if the app's operations in the U.S. aren't sold to an American company. Trump issued another order on August 14, giving ByteDance 90 days to sell or spin off its business in the U.S. Earlier this month, Trump gave his "blessing" to a deal between Oracle and TikTok, which could create a new company called TikTok Global, based in the U.S.

Reacting to the ruling, the Commerce Department has issued a statement saying it would comply with the decision but strongly believes that the executive order is "fully consistent with the law and promotes legitimate national security interests."

TikTok spokeswoman Hilary McQuaide said in a statement that the company was pleased by the Judge's ruling and will continue to "defend its rights." She added:

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.

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