Tik Tok is the subject of a complaint.

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Hollandse Hoogte / SIPA

Thanks to an American judge who on Sunday blocked the suspension of the application ordered by the Trump administration in the name of national security, American users will continue to be able to download TikTok and its updates, at least for the moment.

In early August, Donald Trump signed an executive order to ban the very popular social network TikTok, which belongs to the Chinese group ByteDance, unless it falls into the fold of an American company.

Total ban maintained

A few hours before the government's decision to ban the app from downloading platforms took effect, Judge Carl Nicholas ruled in favor of TikTok, which had filed an appeal on September 18.

The magistrate, appointed by Donald Trump in 2019, has however for the moment refused to suspend the total ban on the app on American soil, scheduled for November 12.

The reasons for his decision are under seal to protect potentially confidential information, but are due to be released on Monday once the two sides agree.

"We are satisfied that the court agreed with our legal arguments and prevented the implementation of the ban," responded TikTok.

The Commerce Ministry said it would comply with the judge's ruling, but fully intended "to vigorously defend the presidential decree against legal pitfalls."

Prevent "2/3 of the country from coming to the agora"

In a telephone hearing Sunday morning, lawyers for TikTok said blocking downloads of the app would be unconstitutional and violate the right to free speech, especially in the run-up to the November 3 presidential election.

"TikTok is much more than an application, it is the modern version of the public forum, it is a community, it is a means of communication (...) all the more important in times of pandemic", argued lawyer John Hall.

"If the ban comes into effect, it is as if the government were preventing 2/3 of the country from coming to the agora."

The platform also assured that it would cause irreparable damage to it in terms of growth, while it gained some 424,000 new American users per day at the beginning of the summer.

For its part, the government considers ByteDance as a “spokesperson” for the Chinese Communist Party and says it wants to prevent new users from being exposed to the risk of having their data looted by China.

Donald Trump has long accused TikTok of spying on its users for the benefit of Beijing, without evidence.

Since his decree, negotiations, invective at the top and twists and turns in the courts have been linked.

If the negotiations are not successful, a complete ban on the network's activities on American soil could come into force from November 12, the Treasury warned.

Battle around a secret algorithm

TikTok last weekend confirmed an agreement to create a new company, TikTok Global, with Oracle as a technology partner in the United States and Walmart as a business partner.

There would also be a stake of 12.5% ​​from Oracle and 7.5% from Walmart.

The Americans would hold four of the five seats on the board.

But the finalization depends on the goodwill of the American president and the Chinese government.

"We are continuing our ongoing dialogue with the government to finalize this project, to which the president has given his preliminary approval," TikTok said on Sunday evening.

The White House host, campaigning for re-election, hammered this week that he would not give his approval if the new group remained under Chinese control while claiming that Oracle and Walmart would own the majority.

ByteDance, which includes US investors, called the information "false rumors."

But ByteDance announced that it had made a “request for authorization” to export technology, without specifying on what subject.

This initiative could concern the famous algorithm that made TikTok so successful: it allows users to display the content most likely to interest them, according to their tastes, and to lead them to spend as much time as possible viewing. video after video on the platform.

China refuses to let this precious computer system fall into the hands of the United States.

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