The United States said on Friday it would not back down from a plan to ban downloads from TikTok.
Washington, United States:
The Trump administration said on Friday it would not back down from a plan to ban new U.S. downloads of popular video-sharing app TikTok, setting up a court showdown before Sunday’s deadline.
A Justice Department court file said it opposed TikTok’s request for an injunction to block President Donald Trump’s order, which called China’s social platform a national security risk .
The filing came a day after U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols told lawyers he would expedite review TikTok’s request to block the president’s order before it goes into effect at 11 p.m. on Sunday. 59 (Monday 0359 GMT).
Government attorneys said they wanted to file a “sealed” brief, which would not be available as a public record, citing national security and confidential business information.
TikTok argued that even a temporary ban could cause irreparable damage to the video-sharing app, which has some 100 million US users.
Nichols said in a hearing Thursday that he disagreed with claims by government lawyers that the ban – which would not immediately prevent TikTok from being used but would prevent downloads by new users and updates – “only preserves the status quo”.
Earlier this month, Trump raised national security concerns and ordered a ban on both TikTok and the popular Chinese app WeChat – which has been suspended by a separate court.
But the TikTok order comes to a halt ahead of a full ban until November 12, giving Chinese parent company ByteDance time to strike a deal to transfer ownership of the app.
A tentative deal unveiled last weekend would make Silicon Valley giant Oracle the technology partner of TikTok and a stake in a new entity called TikTok Global.
