The U.S. Department of Commerce said it would "vigorously defend" parts of President Donald Trump's executive order banning operations of TikTok struck down by two federal judges over a four-day span.
The commerce department Sunday confirmed it would "comply with (last week's) injunction but intends to vigorously defend" the Aug. 6 executive order and its implementation efforts from legal challenges.
It contends the China video-sharing app spies on Americans and is, therefore, a national security threat. TikTok has consistently denied these allegations. TikTok has collected personal data on 100 million Americans who use the app.
The injunction, issued by District Judge Wendy Beetlestone of the U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Pennsylvania, said Trump exceeded his emergency powers in acting against TikTok. Beetlestone blocked the Trump administration from outlawing U.S. transactions with TikTok set to take effect Nov. 12.
Beetlestone's order, which stemmed from a lawsuit brought by three TikTok content creators, also blocks the app store download ban. Legal analysts said Beetlestone's order put Trump's entire executive order aimed at putting TikTok out of business on hold until the other lawsuits concluded.
"The government's own descriptions of the national security threat posed by the TikTok app are phrased in the hypothetical," Beetlestone said in her decision.
"The court cannot say the risk presented by the government outweighs the public interest in enjoining" the executive order for having gone beyond the bounds of what Trump has the power to do under his emergency economic powers.
Her decision was the second setback for the administration's campaign to ban TikTok from the U.S.
On Sept. 27, District Judge Carl Nichols of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia issued a preliminary injunction in a lawsuit brought by ByteDance. The injunction stopped the commerce department from ordering Apple, Inc. and Alphabet Inc.'s Google app stores to remove TikTok for download by new users. This order was to have taken effect that same day.
Nichols will hold a hearing Wednesday on the other aspects of the commerce department order that Beetlestone blocked.
A separate Trump order forcing TikTok to divest fully from its parent company, ByteDance, is scheduled to take effect Nov. 12. Beetlestone's ruling doesn't affect this order, however.
