The Trump administration was ordered to postpone a U.S. ban on TikTok set for Sunday or respond by Friday to a request by the video-sharing app’s Chinese owner for a court order temporarily blocking the ban.
The owner, ByteDance Ltd., is seeking a preliminary injunction on the ban even as it continues to pursue approvals from the administration for a sale of its U.S. operations to Oracle Corp. and Walmart Inc. It has asked U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols in Washington to set a hearing before the ban takes effect at 11:59 p.m. on Sept. 27.
Following a hearing on Thursday, Nichols gave the U.S. until 2:30 p.m. Friday to choose whether to agree to delay the Sunday night deadline or file court papers opposing ByteDance’s bid for the injunction. If the government doesn’t agree to postpone, the judge would hold a hearing on Sunday morning.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Schwei argued against an expedited schedule in the case, saying ByteDance had filed a separate suit more than a month ago and was late in requesting the injunction.
The case is TikTok Inc. v. Trump, 20-cv-2658, U.S. District Court, District of Columbia (Washington).
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