US Court Stays President Trump's Ban On TikTok Downloads

A Court in the United States on Sunday stayed the ban imposed by President Donald Trump on the downloads of the video-sharing app 'TikTok', reported The Washington Post.

Washington District Judge Carl Nichols passed a temporary injunction freezing the executive order passed by the White House. Trump had cited national security concerns on August 6 when he issued an executive order barring both the short-form video app TikTok and the multipurpose WeChat app from app stores.

Hours before the ban was to take effect, the court passed the order, after noting that TikTok was not given sufficient opportunity to defend itself.

The Trump administration sought to ban new downloads of the app from September 28 midnight but would allow the use of TikTok until November 12, when all usage would be blocked. The judge denied TikTok's request to suspend the November 12 ban. The US Government called TikTok a threat to national security on the ground that its Chinese parent firm has links to the Beijing government.

TikTok's lawyer Johh Hall argued that the ban was "punitive" and violation of free speech, reported Agence France-Presse.

In June, the Government of India had blocked TikTok and other 58 apps having Chinese links citing threat to national security and data privacy of the citizens.

TikTok did not raise a legal challenge to the ban order passed by the Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.

Senior Advocates Mukul Rohatgi and Dr A M Singhvi made public statements that they will not give legal representation to TikTok.