Advertisement

Donald Trump's TikTok ban is probably illegal, rules US judge

 In this combination of file pictures created on August 1, 2020 shows the logo of the social media video sharing app Tiktok displayed on a tablet screen in Paris, and US President Donald Trump at the White House in Washington, DC, on July 30, 2020 - Lionel Bonaventure/AFP
In this combination of file pictures created on August 1, 2020 shows the logo of the social media video sharing app Tiktok displayed on a tablet screen in Paris, and US President Donald Trump at the White House in Washington, DC, on July 30, 2020 - Lionel Bonaventure/AFP

Donald Trump's threat to ban TikTok from United States app stores probably exceeded his legal powers and would hurt American citizens, a judge has ruled.

In an order unsealed on Monday, US district judge Carl J Nichols said TikTok's appeal against the ban was "likely to succeed" and that it would suffer "irreparable harm" from even a temporary stop.

The Chinese viral video app is attempting to overturn an order by Donald Trump and his commerce secretary, Wilbur Ross, that would force Google and Apple to block all new downloads from their app stores.

On Sunday, Judge Nichols granted TikTok a temporary injunction freezing the ban, but his reasons for doing so were sealed until Monday.

The order hinges on restrictions built in to the US's economic emergency powers law, which prevent the President and his officials from preventing the import or export of information.

Judge Nichols said: "TikTok exists to facilitate communication and the Secretary’s prohibitions aim to stop it.

"It is undisputed that the Secretary’s prohibitions will have the effect of preventing Americans from sharing personal communications on TikTok."The plaintiffs have demonstrated that the Secretary’s prohibitions likely exceed the lawful bounds proscribed by [US law] .. this weighs in favour of granting preliminary relief."

The case stems from Mr Trump's longstanding campaign against TikTok and other Chinese companies, which came to a head with an executive order on August 6.

Judge Nichols declined to block separate US restrictions set to take effect on November 12, which would stop the app being able to function properly.

The Commerce Department said that it would comply with the order but "intends to vigorously defend the executive order and the secretary’s implementation efforts from legal challenges".

A US government appeal would push the case one rung up America's sprawling court system to the federal Court of Appeals, just below the Supreme Court.

Realistically, however, the freeze will give TikTok's owner, ByteDance, more time to thrash out a deal with Oracle and Walmart that would put US users' data in American hands.

TikTok had told the court that videos created by its 100m US users made up as much as 60pc of the content available in other countries, meaning that a ban would "destroy [its] online community".

Judge Nichols further agreed with TikTok's claim that it would suffer irreparable damage from being excluded from US app stores, even if the ban was later overturned.

"It is undisputed that, as of the date of the order, TikTok was one of the fastest growing apps in the United States, adding 424,000 new users each day," he said.

"TikTok has proffered unrebutted evidence that uncertainty in TikTok’s future availability has already driven, and will continue to drive, content creators and fans to other platforms.

"Thus, if the first prohibition were to take effect tonight but was later held to be unlawful, TikTok would not be able to recover the harm to its user base."