Tik Tok owners urge US judge to block Trump’s download ban order

In the latest twist in a high-stakes game between the world’s top two economies, the Chinese makers of popular app Tik Tok have asked a judge in the United States to block a Trump administration order that would require Apple Inc and Alphabet Inc’s Google to remove the short video-sharing app for new downloads from Sunday.

TikTok in a statement issued on Wednesday argued that the restrictions “were not motivated by a genuine national security concern, but rather by political considerations relating to the upcoming general election”.

The Chinese owned app also said that 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”.

This came after the Republic of China accused the US of ‘bullying’ and thus threatened counter measures after the administration of President Trump banned TikTok downloads, and effectively blocked the use of the messaging super-app, WeChat.

In a statement issued last Saturday, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce condemned Washington’s decision to ban TikTok and WeChat from US app stores, saying: “China urges the US to abandon bullying, cease its wrongful actions and earnestly maintain fair and transparent international rules and order.”