TikTok gets reprieve on Trump’s demand for a ban on the app

The Trump administration pulled back from its threat to ban the viral video-sharing app TikTok in the U.S., as the dispute winds its way through the court system and a proposed sale hangs in limbo.

For months, the app’s Chinese owner, ByteDance Ltd., has faced the prospect of a U.S. ban starting Thursday. But judges have blocked those prohibitions from going into effect. The Commerce Department said on Thursday that it would comply with those court rulings for the time being, even as the government appeals.

The TikTok prohibition “HAS BEEN ENJOINED, and WILL NOT GO INTO EFFECT, pending further legal developments,” the Commerce Department said in a document published in the federal register.