US announces stay of TikTok ban, and sale deadline is held off for at least a month
- Commerce Department ban would have kept US service providers from working with the popular video-sharing app
- A US court hearing a suit by Tiktok’s parent, ByteDance, effectively mooted the Thursday deadline imposed by Donald Trump for the sale of TikTok’s US operations
TikTok, the Chinese-owned popular video-sharing app caught in the midst of US-China tensions, temporarily dodged a ban Thursday that would have meant the shutting of its US operations and saw the deadline for the sale of its US operations moved until next month at the earliest.
The US Department of Commerce announced it would not enact the ban – scheduled to go into effect at midnight – that would have prevented US service providers from enabling users to gain access to TikTok, which would effectively force the app to shut down operations in the country.
Additionally, a federal appeal court extended the deadline – also Thursday at midnight – requiring the app’s parent company, ByteDance, to sell TikTok’s US operations to an American owner. That deadline had been set by US President Donald Trump in an executive order in August, saying that the app presented a national security risk.
The Commerce Department said it was prohibited from instituting the ban after a ruling by US District Judge Wendy Beetlestone in Philadelphia on October 30 in a case brought by three TikTok users.
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The government appealed that ruling on Thursday, and in a statement, the department said that its ban would not go into effect ‘pending further legal developments’.