A federal judge in Pennsylvania on Friday blocked a US Department of Commerce executive order, previously set to take effect Nov. 12, that would have effectively banned Chinese-owned short-form video-sharing app TikTok from operating in the US, Reuters reported on October 31.
The lawsuit was filed by three TikTok creators. This follows a Sept. 27 ruling by a US judge in favor of TikTok, which halted the download ban from the TikTok app store.
US Federal Judge Wendy Beetlestone ordered the US Department of Commerce to delay the ban on the provision of data hosting services, content delivery services, and other technology transactions for TikTok in the United States.
In her ruling, Beetlestone said the order would “have the effect of shutting down, within the United States, a platform for expressive activity used by approximately 700 million individuals globally. Over 100 million of these TikTok users are within the United States, and at least 50 million of these US users use the app on a daily basis.”
On September 27, US District Judge Carl Nichols in Washington, D.C., issued a preliminary injunction against the lawsuit filed by TikTok's parent company, Byte, preventing the US Department of Commerce from ordering Apple and Google Play Store to remove TikTok. The order was scheduled to take effect later that day.
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