Second US judge blocks Commerce restrictions on TikTok

WASHINGTON: A second US judge late on Monday granted a preliminary injunction blocking the US Commerce Department from imposing restrictions on Chinese-owned short video sharing app TikTok that would have effectively barred its use in the United States.

US District Judge Carl Nichols in Washington issued an order more than a month after US judge Wendy Beetlestone in Pennsylvania blocked the same restrictions that were set to take effect on Nov. 12.

Nichols on Sept. 27 had separately blocked the Commerce Department from banning Apple Inc and Alphabet Inc's Google app stores from offering the app for downloads by new users.

TikTok and Commerce did not immediately comment.

Nichols, who was named to the bench by President Donald Trump last year, said the Commerce Department "likely overstepped" its legal authority in issuing the effective TikTok ban "and acted in an arbitrary and capricious manner by failing to consider obvious alternatives."

Nichols' order enjoins the agency from barring data hosting within the United States for TikTok, content delivery services and other technical transactions.

On Friday, the Trump administration declined to grant TikTok owner ByteDance a new extension of Trump's August order requiring it to divest TikTok's US assets, but talks will continue, Reuters reported.

The Treasury Department said late on Friday the government "is engaging with ByteDance to complete the divestment and other steps necessary to resolve the national security risks."

The Trump administration contends TikTok poses national security concerns as the personal data of US users could be obtained by China's government. TikTok, which has over 100 million US users, denies the allegation.

Under pressure from the US government, ByteDance has been in talks for months to finalize a deal with Walmart Inc and Oracle Corp to shift TikTok's US assets into a new entity.

A US appeals court will hear arguments on Nichols' app store ban injunction on Dec. 14.