Federal Judge Temporarily Blocks TikTok App Store Ban

On Sunday, a federal judge temporarily granted TikTok’s request for a temporary injunction against the Department of Commerce’s ban of the app in U.S. app stores, just four hours before the ban was to be implemented. TikTok had argued that the ban was infringing on free speech and acting in a capricious manner. The judge’s ruling does not stop the Commerce Department’s broader restrictions, which would make the app “unusable,” slated for November 12. The Commerce Department's ban aims to follow executive orders signed by President Trump in August. The ruling received relatively more coverage in center- and left-rated outlets than in right-rated outlets. Coverage of certain facts, like criticisms in Chinese media and TikTok owner ByteDance’s business negotiations, varied across all bias ratings. Some center- and left-rated outlets described the blocked ban as “Trump’s ban,” and some other outlets on all sides attributed the ban to the “Trump administration.”