⁍ A U.S. judge in Washington said he plans to decide later on Sunday whether to block a Trump administration order.

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⁍ The order bans Apple and Google from offering Chinese-owned short video-sharing app TikTok for download.

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⁍ TikTok argues the restrictions, amid rising U.S.-China tensions under the Trump administration, ‘were not motivated by a genuine national security concern

– A federal judge in Washington, DC, plans to decide Sunday whether to block a Trump administration order banning Apple and Google from offering Chinese-owned short video-sharing app TikTok for download, Reuters reports. US District Judge Carl Nichols said after a 90-minute hearing that he plans to issue a public order later in the day. The Commerce Department TikTok app store ban is set to take effect at 11:59pm EDT (0359 GMT). John E. Hall, a lawyer for TikTok, argued during the hearing that the ban was ‘unprecedented’ and ‘irrational.’ ‘How does it make sense to impose this app store ban tonight when there are negotiations underway that might make it unnecessary?’ Hall asked during the hearing. ‘This is just punitive. This is just a blunt way to whack the company. … There is simply no urgency here.’ US officials have expressed national security concerns that personal data collected on 100 million Americans who use the app could be obtained by China’s Communist Party government. TikTok argues the restrictions, amid rising US-China tensions under the Trump administration, ‘were not motivated by a genuine national security concern, but rather by political considerations relating to the upcoming general election.’ A separate set of restrictions are set to take effect Nov. 12 barring other transactions with TikTok that would effectively ban the app in the United States, the company said. Another US judge, in Pennsylvania, on Saturday rejected a bid by three TikTok content creators to block the ban.