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Judge temporarily blocks U.S. ban on TikTok downloads from U.S. app stores

FILE PHOTO: TikTok's logo is displayed on the smartphone while standing on the U.S. flag in this illustration

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. judge in Washington has temporarily blocked a Trump administration order banning Apple Inc <AAPL.O> and Alphabet Inc's Google <GOOGL.O> from offering Chinese-owned short video-sharing app TikTok for download that was set to take effect at 11:59 p.m. Sunday.

U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols granted a preliminary injunction sought by TikTok owner ByteDance to allow the app to remain available at U.S. app stores, but declined "at this time" to block additional Commerce Department restrictions that are set to take effect on Nov. 12 that TikTok has said would have the impact of making the app impossible to use in the United States.

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Kim Coghill)