The U.S. government on Sunday faced a last-minute court injunction over its plan to ban popular Chinese video-sharing app TikTok from U.S. app stores, about a week after another court held up an order banning Chinese messaging app WeChat.
The injunctions are a blow to the administration of President Donald Trump as it tries to crack down on the apps, alleging they could pose a national security risk by capturing vast swathes of data from U.S. citizens for transfer to the Chinese government.
TikTok was initially supposed to be removed from U.S. app stores last Sunday, but the U.S. Commerce Department had delayed enforcement of the ban by a week in light of negotiations taking place between the Chinese app owner ByteDance Ltd. and U.S. companies about ways to address the perceived security risks.
In the meantime, ByteDance had filed for a preliminary injunction with a federal district court in Washington, saying that prohibiting the app, which it says is used by 100 million Americans, would inflict irreparable harm on the company.
WeChat, which is also a mobile payment app, was supposed to be banned from U.S. app stores and slapped with other technical restrictions as of the end of last Sunday. But a federal district court in California issued a nationwide injunction against the ban before it took effect.
WeChat, owned by Chinese IT giant Tencent Holdings Ltd., is estimated to have 19 million users in the United States.
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