WASHINGTON: A US judge in Pennsylvania blocked a US Commerce Department order set to take effect on November 12 that would have effectively barred Chinese-owned short video-sharing app TikTok from operating in the United States.
US District Court Judge Wendy Beetlestone enjoined the Commerce Department from barring data hosting within the United States for TikTok, content delivery services and other technical transactions.
In her ruling, Beetlestone said the order would “have the effect of shutting down, within the United States, a platform for expressive activity used by approximately 700 million individuals globally.
Over 100 million of these TikTok users are within the United States, and at least 50 million of these US users use the app on a daily basis.”
The Commerce Department, has acknowledged the restrictions would “significantly reduce the functionality and usability of the app in the United States” and “may ultimately make the application less effective.”
On September 27, US District Judge Carl Nichols in Washington issued a preliminary injunction in a suit brought by TikTok owner ByteDance that stopped the US Commerce Department from ordering Apple Inc and Alphabet Inc’s Google app stores to remove TikTok for download by new users. — Reuters
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