December 8, 2020

A United States federal judge has blocked President Donald Trump’s attempts to ban TikTok, the latest legal defeat for the administration as it tries to wrest the popular app from its Chinese owners.

The Trump administration had tried to ban the short-form video app from smartphone app stores in the US and cut it off from vital technical services. TikTok sued, arguing such actions would violate free speech and due process rights.

Judge Carl Nichols of the US District Court in Washington, DC said in a ruling on Monday that the Commerce Department “likely overstepped” its use of presidential emergency powers “and acted in an arbitrary and capricious manner by failing to consider obvious alternatives”.

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