Civil Rights
Block on Trump's Asylum Ban Upheld by Supreme Court
In a decision given to the parties on Sunday night, a federal judge in the D.C. Circuit has put President Trump's plans to ban TikTok on hold. The wildly popular video-sharing app currently has around 100 million users in the United States.
Some fear that the app's parent company, ByteDance, would be required to turn over user data to the Chinese government if asked. Others are concerned about censorship or propaganda. Arguing that the app presented an unreasonable national security risk for American users, President Trump signed an executive order in August to ban downloads of TikTok in the U.S.
Several companies in Big Tech put in bids to take over TikTok operations in the U.S. as a solution to these concerns. But the deal reached between ByteDance and the U.S. government recently fell apart due to disagreements between the Chinese company and potential buyer Oracle.
President Trump's ban was set to take effect on September 28, but D.C. Circuit Judge Carl J. Nichols granted an emergency injunction requested by TikTok over the weekend. Judge Nichols' decision came down just four hours before TikTok would have disappeared from mobile app stores.
The full decision is currently sealed. Judge Nichols called the executive order a "largely unilateral decision with very little opportunity for the plaintiffs to be heard." However, if a new deal can't be reached, ByteDance still faces a complete ban of the app on November 12.