The popular video app TikTok narrowly escaped the Trump administration’s attempt to stop downloads in the US.
Shortly before TikTok was to disappear from the American app stores of Apple and Google, a judge suspended the US government’s injunction. Although the end of Tiktok on the US market is still looming as the court in Washington rejected the company’s application on Sunday to also take action against the threat of a complete shutdown for the app in the USA on November 12.
Without the court’s intervention, TikTok would have disappeared from the App Store and the Play Store in the USA on September 28, 2020. Anyone who has already installed the app could have continued to use it without restrictions. But there would have been no more updates, and it would no longer have been possible to reinstall Tiktok on a device.
A few days ago, TikTok applied for an injunction against the actions of the Ministry of Commerce and argued, among other things, that the damage caused by the download stop could not be repaired. The judge decided that both sides should agree on a schedule for how to proceed. The US Department of Commerce said it would bow to the injunction but will defend its actions in the main trial.
TikTok belongs to the Chinese company Bytedance. US President Donald Trump had called the app a security risk because Chinese authorities could use the app to access data from US citizens.
Trump had already announced that he had approved a fundamental deal that would secure the continued existence of TikTok in the USA through the entry of the American companies Oracle and Walmart. But since then there have been contradicting statements as to whether the new US partners or Bytedance should hold the majority in the global Tiktok business — and the conclusion of a final agreement has been delayed.
