Two US federal judges have ruled this month that the Trump administration failed to prove Chinese-owned apps used by millions of Americans pose enough of a national security threat to justify a US ban.
US District Judge Carl Nichols in Washington said in a court filing on Sept 28 that he blocked a ban on new downloads of ByteDance Ltd’s TikTok because the government has likely overstepped its authority under the emergency-powers law it invoked to justify the prohibition. On Sept 19, US Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler in San Francisco blocked a similar ban on Tencent Holding Ltd’s WeChat.