US judge orders Donald Trump admin to defend or postpone ban on TikTok

A US federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to postpone its ban on downloads of TikTok or defend itself in a court hearing this weekend brought by the Chinese-owner of the video-sharing application, the Wall Street Journal reported.

If Judge Nichols of the US District Court of Columbia decides on Sunday to halt the Trump administration's actions against TikTok, it would be the second setback of its kind for the White House in a week, the report said on Thursday.

Another US federal judge last week temporarily blocked President Donald Trump's executive order curbing Americans' use of WeChat, a popular Chinese-owned messaging and e-commerce app.

The White House said US downloads of the application on the Apple Playstore and Android's Google Play will be restricted from Sunday and all of TikTok US operations will be banned on November 12 unless the company ceded its local controlling equity and technology to an American firm.

In August, Trump threatened to ban the application in the United States, citing wider concerns about alleged Chinese government spying on data of Americans using China-originated social media.

The United States' ban was originally to take effect on September 20, but was later deferred to November 12 after the Trump administration offered the company a way out by allowing a US entity to acquire it.

Trump said the software firm Oracle and retail giant Walmart were in final talks for assuming control of TikTok's equity and technology.

However, TikTok's parent company ByteDance has insisted to retain an 80 per cent stake in the video-sharing platform's restructured US operations.