TikTok asks judge to block U.S. from barring app for download

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TikTok asked a U.S. judge on Wednesday to block a Trump administration order that would require Apple Inc AAPL.O and Alphabet Inc’s Google GOOGL.O to remove the short video-sharing app for new downloads starting on Sunday.

A federal judge in San Francisco on Saturday issued a preliminary injunction blocking a similar Commerce Department order from taking effect on Sunday on Tencent Holdings’ 0700.HK WeChat app.

U.S. officials have expressed serious concerns that the personal data of as many as 100 million Americans that use the app was being passed on to China’s Communist Party government.

On Saturday, the Commerce Department announced a one-week delay in the TikTok order, citing “recent positive developments” in talks over the fate of its U.S. operations.

TikTok said the restrictions “were not motivated by a genuine national security concern, but rather by political considerations relating to the upcoming general election.”

TikTok said if the order is not blocked “hundreds of millions of Americans who have not yet downloaded TikTok will be shut out of this large and diverse online community – six weeks before a national election.”

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