As a follow up to our previous TikTok article, Brian Fung of CNN reports that TikTok is safe in the US and will stay in US app stores, for now, as a federal judge bought the app some more time and the ruling halted the government ban of US downloads just hours prior to the ban’s inception.
TikTok called the ban unconstitutional and a violation of due process, and John Hall, one of TikTok’s attorneys, stated that the government ban of the app would have been an “extraordinary action at the very time when the need for free, open and accessible communication in America is at its zenith.”
Lawyers for the US government argued that “TikTok's ownership by a Chinese firm represented an ‘immediate danger’ to national security. The app's parent company ByteDance is based in Beijing, and the Trump administration has claimed that the app's American user data risks winding up in the hands of the Chinese government.”
Judge Carl Nichols reasoning for his ruling is not public. However, during the hearing, Nichols “indicated that the Trump administration’s ban, as structured, could be considered a ‘farily significant deprivation’ of the company’s due process rights,” according to Fung.
TikTok is pleased with the ruling, and quite frankly, so are we! We can continue providing the content in our internet profile reports.