TikTok Survives in the US, for Now

The TikToks will keep rolling. The Department of Commerce said Thursday it will delay enforcing President Trump's executive order requiring TikTok to suspend US operations as of midnight Thursday. The department's statement says the order is on hold "pending further legal developments," per the Wall Street Journal. As for what those legal developments are: Late Thursday, the Trump administration appealed a judge's order from September that concluded the government had likely exceeded its authority under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act in moving against the app, which it claims presents national security risks.

That order—also claiming the action "presents a threat to the 'robust exchange of informational materials'"—was issued in Philadelphia after three TikTok users sued. TikTok and its Chinese parent company ByteDance are separately working to overturn an order by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States requiring the divestment. The Journal reports "the legal underpinnings of the Trump administration's effort appear to be weakening," while Ars Technica sees this latest development as "a tacit admission that the proposed ban isn't actually particularly important to the administration any longer." (More TikTok stories.)