Download ban suspended: court gives Tiktok more time

Actually, users in the USA should no longer be able to download the Tiktok app from now on. But now a court is holding back the US president's plans to ban the platform. However, this does not secure Tiktok's future.

A US court has suspended the US President Donald Trump's ban on downloads of the popular Tiktok app. The federal judge in Washington granted an application by the operator of the video platform for an injunction on Sunday evening (local time). The ban was supposed to come into force just a few hours after the judge's decision.

Tiktok belongs to the Chinese Bytedance group. The US government justifies its action against the video platform with the fact that it endangers national security. Trump suspects Bytedance of using Tiktok for espionage and of forwarding user data to the Chinese government. Bytedance rejects this suspicion.

The US government regulation not only prohibits downloads of the Tiktok app. From November 12th, the app will be banned completely in the USA, and even those who have already downloaded it will no longer be able to use it. The federal judge refused to grant Tiktok's request to temporarily suspend the general ban on the app from November 12th.

Tiktok suspects political calculation

Tiktok had argued that the real reason for the proposed bans was not concerns about national security, but the US presidential campaign. Trump is running for a second term on November 3. In the past few months he has tightened his course with China on a number of issues.

With the prohibition regulation, the US president wants Bytedance to sell the US branch of Tiktok to a US company. After negotiations between Bytedance and Microsoft had failed, Trump gave the go-ahead for a preliminary agreement between Bytedance and the US companies Oracle and Walmart.

However, the details of the agreement have remained uncertain recently – for example, which actor will hold how many shares in the future and who has control over data and algorithms. Trump stressed that he would only agree to an agreement on the condition that Bytedance completely relinquishes control of the US business.