A federal judge has granted a preliminary injunction that might mean that the US Commerce Department will be unable to ban transactions with TikTok. President Trump had banned TikTok and WeChat via an executive order citing privacy and national security concerns.
The 6th August 2020 executive order would have blocked transactions between US companies and TikTok and WeChat’s Chinese parent companies, ByteDance and Tencent. The order invoked the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), allows Trump to ban transactions between the US and foreign entities.
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In his opinion accompanying today’s decision, US district judge Carl Nichols said that “the government likely exceeded IEEPA’s express limitations”. He then granted a preliminary injunction in favour of TikTok against each item the Commerce Department was attempting to prohibit.
Nichols also previously granted a preliminary injunction that allowed people to continue downloading TikTok in the US. However, he didn’t rule on the other restriction by the Commerce Department.
“We’re pleased that the court agreed with us and granted a preliminary injunction against all the prohibitions of the Executive Order. We’re focused on continuing to build TikTok as the home that 100 million Americans, including families and small businesses, rely upon for expression, connection, economic livelihood, and true joy,” a TikTok spokesperson said in a statement.
Thanks to a lawsuit brought by three TikTok creators, Pennsylvania federal judge had already stopped TikTok from shutting down on 30th October 2020.
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