A federal judge in Pennsylvania blocked a broad set of government restrictions designed to curb the use of the Chinese-owned video-sharing app TikTok in the U.S.
U.S. District Judge Wendy Beetlestone issued a temporary injunction on Friday blocking the TikTok ban in response to a lawsuit filed by a group of plaintiffs who use TikTok to make a living. The proposed rules, scheduled to go into effect Nov. 12, would forbid companies from providing the underlying web services that make the app accessible in the U.S.
If those prohibitions went into effect, people who currently have TikTok installed on their phones would still be able to use it, but the app’s functionality would degrade over time. That would amount to a “complete shut-down” in the U.S., the company has said in court filings.
© Copyright 2025 Bloomberg News. All rights reserved.