TikTok Ban: Trump administration appeals court blocking restrictions

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The US government appealed on Monday against a decision taken by a federal judge earlier this month that prevented authorities from fully enforcing the restrictions against the popular short video app.

The appeal disputes a Dec. 7 preliminary injunction from U.S. District Court Judge Carl Nichols that prevented the U.S. Department of Commerce from imposing rules that would have made it illegal for infrastructure companies to carry TikTok’s network traffic.

The US government will not extend the deadline for a TikTok deal, but negotiations are continuing

That ruling followed an earlier injunction prohibiting the Department of Commerce from banning downloads of TikTok from US app stores.

TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The company has been in the sights of the Trump administration for months. US President Donald Trump has accused TikTok of posing a national security risk because the Chinese owner, ByteDance, could be forced to hand over TikTok’s user data to the Chinese government. TikTok has denied the claim, saying that TikTok stores US user data in Virginia and Singapore of the scope of Chinese law.

TikTok has struck a deal with the US government to address concerns that would attract US investors such as Oracle (ORCL) and Walmart (WMT). But that deal is not yet complete.
Earlier this month, the US government declined to extend a deadline it had set for ByteDance to sell the app. But it also decided not to enforce an executive order requiring the sale.

This 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.

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