MOSCOW, Sept. 28 — A US federal judge has blocked the ban of President Donald Trump’s administration on the downloads of TikTok, a video-sharing app owned by Chinese company ByteDance.

According to Sputnik news agency, quoting the Wall Street Journal report on Sunday, the ban was supposed to take effect on Sunday night, but Judge Carl Nichols of the US District Court in Washington, D.C., granted a preliminary injunction sought by ByteDance to allow TikTok to remain available for download in the US.

The White House had said that US downloads of the application on the Apple Playstore and Android’s Google Play would be restricted from Sunday and all of TikTok US operations would be banned on November 12 unless the company ceded its local controlling equity and technology to an American firm.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Judge Carl Nichols denied on Sunday TikTok’s request to suspend the November 12 ban.

Trump’s ban of TikTok was initially set for September 20, but has been postponed to November 12 as the administration offered the company a way out by being acquired by a US entity. The US president said software firm Oracle and retail giant Walmart were in final talks for control of TikTok’s equity and technology. However, ByteDance has insisted on maintaining an 80 per cent stake in the restructured US version of TikTok.

Trump has repeatedly threatened to ban the TikTok application in the United States, citing wider concerns about alleged Chinese government’s spying on American users’ data.

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