US judge grants TikTok a reprieve, says Donald Trump likely overstepped his authority

Name: Global expansion of TikTok and other Chinese tech companies is likely, only not in the West
Uploaded: 2020-09-28T20:27:17.000Z
Duration: 6 min 2 s
Description: Global expansion of TikTok and other Chinese tech companies is likely, only not in the West

ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, will likely succeed in proving the US government violated the First Amendment, judge says

The move likely overstepped the president’s legal authority by blocking an information channel, according to judge

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A US ban of TikTok will ‘inflict irreparable economic and reputational harm’, a judge rules. Photo: Xinhua

Jodi Xu Klein

Published: 4:27am, 29 Sep 2020Updated: 11:48pm, 29 Sep 2020

A US federal judge said he blocked the Trump administration’s ban on Chinese-owned video app TikTok on Sunday because the move likely overstepped the president’s legal authority by blocking an information channel.

In an opinion unsealed on Monday, US District Judge Carl Nichols in Washington said ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, would likely succeed in proving the US government violated the First Amendment and failed to provide the Chinese app with proper due process .

Citing his authority under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), US President Donald Trump signed an executive order in August threatening to ban TikTok and WeChat, a Chinese-owned messaging app, saying the companies could be required to turn over users’ personal data to Beijing and pose a national security risk.

“TikTok (like a news wire, which is expressly identified in IEEPA’s carveout) is primarily a conduit of ‘informational materials’,” Nichols said.

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Global expansion of TikTok and other Chinese tech companies is likely, only not in the West

The TikTok ban will also “inflict irreparable economic and reputational harm” to the company, Nichols said.