TIK TOK STILL AVAILABLE IN THE US AFTER JUDGE ISSUES TEMPORARY INJUNCTION

A US court has given social media app TikTok the go ahead to still make itself available for download in the US. This comes despite president Donald Trump's claims that the app is a national threat.

The Standard reports that the White House said the video service was a security risk because the personal information of its millions of US users could be handed over to Chinese authorities.

"The developments come amid heightened tensions between Mr Trump's White House administration and the Chinese government over a number of issues, including trade disputes and Beijing's handling of the coronavirus pandemic."

The Standard went on to report that TikTok defended itself by saying it does not censor videos and it would not give the Chinese government access to US user data. The app, owned by Chinese-based ByteDance, claims all US user data is stored in the US, with a backup in Singapore.

The US government wanted to ban all new downloads of the app from midnight on Tuesday, but a report by the BBC said that Judge Carl Nichols of the US District Court for the District of Colombia issued an injunction on Sunday evening, having held a 90-minute hearing earlier in the day.

Following the injunction, Interim Head at TikTok, Vanessa Pappas, thanked users of the app for their support.

"We are here for you – and we are here for the long run."

Watch the Bloomberg video below for more info on the judge's decision.

Image credits: SoMag News and Search Engine Journal.