The TikTok saga is far from over. Despite news earlier this month that United States-based Oracle would be helping the moible application implement new measures to quell security concerns from the Trump Administration, a federal judge is set to rule as soon as Sunday as to whether or not Donald Trump’s initial ban will take place.
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District Court Judge Carl Nichols has informed both Trump’s Department of Justice and ByteDance, the parent company behind TikTok, that he’ll make a decision on TikTok’s plea to stave off the ban before it goes into effect at 11:59 p.m. Sunday night. The next hearing in the case is currently scheduled for 9:30 a.m. Eastern on Sunday.
TikTok case: Judge Carl Nichols (D.D.C.) set a sealed preliminary injunction hearing for Sunday at 9:30 a.m. The executive order, if not stayed, will go into effect at midnight on Monday.
— Scott Nover (@ScottNover) September 25, 2020
Nichols is overseeing an injunction filed on behalf ByteDance, which is looking to temporarily halt the ban as it works out a deal with Oracle, a Trump-approved business partner. The Department of Justice defended its stance on banning the app on Friday, accusing ByteDance CEO Zhang Yiming of being a “mouthpiece” for the Chinese Communist Party.
After Oracle and ByteDance reached a tentative agreement earlier this month, Oracle chief Safra Catz tried reassuring the administration the company would help shore up any security vulnerabilities in an effort to protect the data of Americans that continue using the app. According to TikTok, there are over 100 million Americans that actively use the app every month and an additional 600 million internationally.
“We are a hundred percent confident in our ability to deliver a highly secure environment to TikTok and ensure data privacy to TikTok’s American users, and users throughout the world,” Catz said via a statement. “This greatly improved security and guaranteed privacy will enable the continued rapid growth of the TikTok user community to benefit all stakeholders.”
Should TikTok’s injunction not be granted, the app will be removed from American marketplaces at midnight. The situation will likely remain that way until the deal between ByteDance and Oracle is finalized, when — or if, for that matter — that may be.
