A federal judge has postponed President Donald Trump's threatened shutdown of the popular short-form video app TikTok, siding with a Pennsylvania comedian and two other TikTok creators who say Trump's order hampers their free speech.
U.S. District Judge Wendy Beetlestone on Friday blocked an upcoming Commerce Department action that would have effectively banned TikTok in the U.S. by cutting it off from vital technical services.
The Trump administration has said TikTok is a security threat, citing its Chinese owner, ByteDance, and the possibility that the Chinese government could spy on users. Trump's executive order was set to take effect Nov. 12, but is now on hold as the lawsuit proceeds.
This is not the first court challenge to Trump's attempted crackdown on TikTok. Another federal judge in September postponed a Trump administration order that would have banned TikTok from smartphone app stores. In that case, lawyers for TikTok argued that the administration’s app-store ban would infringe on First Amendment rights and do irreparable harm to the business.
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