Trump administration ordered to postpone TikTok ban or defend it by Friday

The administration has until 2:30 pm Friday.

What you need to know

• TikTok might be getting a stay of execution.
• A judge has ordered the Trump administration to delay the ban or defend it in court by Friday.
• If the administration won't delay, a hearing Sunday will decide whether to legally block the move.

A judge has told the Trump administration it must delay its ban of TikTok or defend the move in court after the company filed for an injunction to stop the the app being banned.

Earlier this week, TikTok filed for a preliminary injunction to stop President Trump banning the app from U.S. app stores from Sunday, September 27. A ban had previously been pegged for Sunday, September 20, however, this was extended by a week after it was reported the President had approved a deal to sell TikTok to Oracle.

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The decision may have been taken out of the President's hands, however. As reported by Bloomberg:

The Trump administration was ordered to postpone a U.S. ban on TikTok set for Sunday or respond by Friday to a request by the app's Chinese owner for a court order temporarily blocking the ban. The owner, ByteDance Ltd., is seeking a preliminary injunction on the ban even as it continues to pursue approvals from the administration for a sale of the video-sharing app's U.S. operations to Oracle Corp. and Walmart Inc. forced by President Donald Trump. It has asked the court to weigh its request ahead of the prohibition, which takes effect just before midnight on Sunday.

The report says that the Trump administration has until 2:30 pm local time, either to agree to delay the ban or to file court papers in opposition to the filing for an injunction. The report further notes that if the ban is not delayed, a hearing will be held Sunday morning in order to decide on the matter.

Orders from the Department of Comerce following an executive order from President Trump could see TikTok removed from both the iOS App Store and Google Play stores from Sunday night if it takes effect. An attorney for TikTok said:

"The urgency of this is created by the Sunday night ban. That part of it makes absolutely no sense to us."

The administration has until the afternoon of Friday, September 25, to respond.