TikTok must resolve other US restrictions after Trump ban is halted, legal experts say

Four other prohibitions set out by the Commerce Department against TikTok have added more pressure on ByteDance to close a proposed deal with Oracle

US District Judge Carl Nichols in Washington has ordered the parties in the TikTok case to confer by Wednesday on the next steps in their dispute

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Published: 7:00pm, 29 Sep 2020Updated: 2:55pm, 15 Oct 2020

ByteDance-owned TikTok must move to resolve other US government restrictions, according to legal experts, after a federal court stopped the Trump administration from imposing a ban on downloading and updating the popular short video-sharing service.

In his unsealed opinion on Monday, US District Judge Carl Nichols in Washington granted a preliminary injunction in favour of plaintiffs, led by TikTok, because the ban issued against the Chinese-owned app likely overstepped US President Donald Trump’s legal authority by blocking an information channel.

Following that legal relief, experts said TikTok must now deal with other prohibited transactions that the US Department of Commerce published on September 18. The agency will seek to enforce them around midnight on November 12, under the authority of two executive orders issued by Trump on August 6 and 14.

The latest court ruling covered the first US government prohibition, which would have banned TikTok from distributing and maintaining its app in the US around midnight on Sunday, because it was an “urgent and timely” matter to resolve, according to Wang Nan, a Shanghai-based lawyer who represents clients in cross-border disputes at global law firm Kobre & Kim.

Citing his authority under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, Trump issued the executive order on the grounds that TikTok’s foreign ownership and data collection pose a risk to Americans’ personal and proprietary information, which could be turned over to Beijing.

A TikTok spokeswoman on Monday said the company was “pleased that the court agreed with our legal arguments and issued an injunction”. The Commerce Department, meanwhile, said that it will “vigorously defend” the Trump administration’s executive order.