TikTok has secured a court injunction blocking the US government's plans to ban the app is the US, Reuters reports. Its parent company ByteDance had filed the suit in district court in Washington. This is the second such injunction, after a court in Pennsylvania granted a similar request last month to a group of TikTok users.

US District Judge Carl Nichols in Washington granted the order. In September, he separately blocked the Commerce Department from banning Apple and Google's app stores from offering the app for download.

Nichols said the Commerce Department "likely overstepped" its legal authority in issuing the effective TikTok ban "and acted in an arbitrary and capricious manner by failing to consider obvious alternatives". Nichols’ order enjoins the agency from barring data hosting within the US for TikTok, content delivery services and other technical transactions.

A TikTok spokesman said it was "pleased that the court agreed with us and granted a preliminary injunction". 

The Commerce Department said it would "vigorously defend" the executive order that authorized the restrictions and said it "is fully consistent with law and promotes legitimate national security interests. The government will continue to comply with the injunctions."

Meanwhile, the US government declined to grant ByteDance a new extension of the executive order requiring it to divest TikTok’s US assets, after the previous deadline expired on 05 December. However, it remains in talks with TikTok on a potential solution, Reuters reported.

The Treasury Department said the government "is engaging with ByteDance to complete the divestment and other steps necessary to resolve the national security risks."