Even in transition, the Trump administration has not forgotten about the TikTok ban. CNN reports that on Monday, the Trump administration filed an appeal against a U.S court injunction that prevented the government from restricting TikTok downloads in the country.
The popular Chinese audio and video sharing app, TikTok by ByteDance became a hot topic for the government in August. Claiming that the app was a threat to national security by selling information of U.S users to the Chinese government, President Donal Trump passed two executive orders to ban TikTok in the United States and to allow the company to sell its U.S operation to an American company by November. ByteDance denied any wrongdoing but still held negotiations with Oracle, Twitter, and other interested parties for a possible acquisition before the given deadline.
Trump Administration still pursuing TikTok ban
As a last-minute effort, ByteDance filed for an injunction to stop the TikTok ban from going into effect on Sunday, September 27, 2020. Luckily for the company, the judge ruled in favor of Tiktok, and the decision allowed Americans to continue using the app while the court analyzed the ban’s legality and determine if the app was a national security threat.
In the subsequent hearing of the case, earlier in December, a federal judge’s ruling stopped the Trump administration from fully implementing restrictions on the app which the government is appealing against. The report states,
The appeal challenges a Dec. 7 preliminary injunction from US District Court Judge Carl Nichols, which prevented the US Department of Commerce from enforcing rules that would have made it illegal for infrastructure companies to carry TikTok’s network traffic.
That ruling followed an earlier injunction that prevented the Commerce Department from banning downloads of TikTok from US app stores.
Previously, it was reported that the U.S government intended to let the app’s acquisition deadline lapse and continue negotiations with ByteDance to avoid the TikTok ban in the country. However, with only a few days left in the office, will the Trump administration will be able to conclude this matter before President-elect Joe Biden takes charge.
Earlier this month, the US government declined to extend a deadline it had set for ByteDance to sell off the app. But it also decided not to enforce an executive order requiring the sale.
That allowed negotiations between TikTok and US officials to continue. But it’s not clear whether concerns about the app will be resolved before President-elect Joe Biden takes office next month.
The confusion created by abrupt orders for a TikTok ban continues as the case progresses. It is claimed that FaceBook’s CEO MarkZuckerberg is influencing the U.S government to ban the app as he fears competition from its unprecedented popularity. The court will decide if the app is a genuine national security threat or if the ban just another example of the anti-competitive behavior of a giant tech company. We will keep you updated.
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