What you need to know
- A judge is deliberating whether to block President's Trump's proposed ban on TikTok.
- In a court filing, the U.S. government has said the ban must proceed.
- The administration says stopping the move would infringe on the President's authority in the midst of a "declared national-security emergency."
The Trump administration has told a court that a ban on TikTok must proceed after the company took legal action to try and stop the move.
As it stands, TikTok will be banned from app stores in the U.S. from Sunday without legal intervention. Earlier this week the company asked a court to stop the move stating it had done everything asked of it by the administration and that a ban would massively damage the company.
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In its own filing, the administration has urged the court to allow the ban to proceed. From the filing:
The Court should reject Plaintiffs' request. As reflected in the twenty-five page decision memorandum attached to this filing, and other materials on which the Secretary relied, the Secretary made a reasoned, considered decision about the need to impose these prohibitions.
The filing further states that TikTok has not proven that it will suffer any irreparable harm as a result of the ban and that the public interest strongly favors the move. The filing notes that if the requested relief is granted to TikTok, it would "necessarily infringe on the President's authority to block business-to-business economic transactions with a foreign entity in the midst of a declared national-security emergency."
The filing in detail notes that China is seen by the U.S. as a growing national security threat, that Chinese companies are compelled to cooperate with intelligence agencies and intrusive laws, that ByteDance (TikTok's parent company) is subject to heavy influence by the CCP and that TikTok is involved in the mass collection of data by U.S. citizens.
A hearing will take place at 9:30 am on Sunday, September 27, where a judge will decide whether to block the administration's move. At this stage, a ban would only result in TikTok being removed from app stores in the country, and would not impact on users who already have the app downloaded.
