Stay Order on TikTok Ban for Now: US Commerce Department

The US Commerce Department on Thursday decided not to enforce its order that would effectively shut down TikTok.

Tik Tok Music Video App: The live video streaming platform belongs to ByteDance.

(Photo: The Quint)

The US Commerce Department on Thursday, 12 December, has decided not to enforce its order that would effectively shut down TikTok, a Chinese video-sharing company owned by ByteDance that had become a global trend amongst millennials.

This decision has delayed implementation of a regulation by the Trump administration that would have come into effect on Thursday, which would bar US-based companies like Amazon from web-hosting or providing content delivery services to the mobile app.

This regulation would have made the application inoperable and was ordered by the White House on claims that the application posed a national security threat due to its links to Beijing, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Citing a federal court order in Philadelphia, the Commerce Department put out a statement and said it would abide by the 30-October temporary injunction and the shutdown order won’t go into effect “pending further legal developments”, reported Agence France-Presse.

The Commerce Department directive allows TikTok to operate in the US and doesn’t address the CFIUS mandate demanding TikTok sell its US assets, reported CNBC.

In a deal in August, the Trump administration agreed to a 20 percent minority stake sale to Oracle and Walmart as "trusted technology partners in the US” and can thus address the national security concerns. However, Chinese authorities haven’t approved of the deal, and there has been no more guidance from the American government in the weeks leading up to the elections, reported CNBC.

On Tuesday, 10 November, ByteDance filed a petition in the US Court of Appeals, DC Circuit, asking for a delay so it could get more “clarity on its future”. However, the 30-day extension has not been granted, reported CNBC.

(With inputs from Wall Street Journal, Agence France-Presse and CNBC)