A federal judge just blocked President Trump’s nationwide TikTok ban, citing the administration’s ‘hypothetical’ national security concerns

• A federal judge blocked President Donald Trump’s nationwide ban on the video sharing app TikTok, saying that the administration’s phrasing for the national security concerns the app posed was “hypothetical.”
• The ban, which Trump originally issued in August, was intended to go into effect on November 12.
• The judge’s block of the ban is the latest development in the Trump administration’s mission to ban TikTok from the US market over national security concerns.
• Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

A federal judge just blocked President Trump’s nationwide TikTok ban, saying that his national security concerns were “hypothetical.”

The injunction was filed on Friday in a Pennsylvania district court. It blocks Trump’s ban, which was originally issued in August, from going into effect on November 12.

The injunction is part of a lawsuit that was filed in mid-September by some TikTok creators who argued that a ban would majorly affect their business and limit their audience growth, as well as restrict their freedom of expression on the platform.

In a statement to Business Insider, a TikTok spokesperson said “we are deeply moved by the outpouring of support from our creators, who have worked to protect their rights to expression, their careers, and to help small businesses, particularly during the pandemic. We stand behind our community as they share their voices, and we are committed to continuing to provide a home for them to do so.”

The judge’s motion to block the ban is the latest development in a series of efforts made by the Trump administration to bar the app from the US market. US officials have criticized the app’s China-based parent company, ByteDance, over national security concerns. Some US lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have expressed fear that the Chinese government could access millions of Americans’ personal data through the app.

In addition to the ban, Presiden Trump has also ordered ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, to sell TikTok’s US business to an American firm. Microsoft was initially floated as the reported frontrunner for such a deal until Oracle unexpectedly won the bid to be the app’s “trusted technology provider.” However, the Oracle sale remains in limbo, and TikTok’s future in the US remains murky.

As the Trump administration has attempted to block TikTok from the US market, other tech firms have moved in with TikTok-like services, like Instagram’s Reels feature that allows users to create short videos on the platforms. TikTok’s rival, the video-sharing app Triller, has also risen to popularity during TikTok’s debacle with the Trump administration. ByteDance and TikTok recently sued Triller over patent infringement claims, alleging that the companies have been using its technology for years.