The US justice department said it had appealed against a judge’s order that blocked the government from imposing restrictions on Chinese-owned TikTok that were set to take effect on Thursday. The commerce department’s August restrictions order was to take effect late in the day, barring transactions with the video sharing app that its Chinese owner, ByteDance, had warned would have effectively barred its use in the United States. The commerce department said on 1 November that it would comply with the Pennsylvania judge Wendy Beetlestone’s order, but would “vigorously defend” its actions. TikTok did not immediately comment on the government’s appeal to the US third circuit. Beetlestone enjoined the agency from barring data hosting within the United States for TikTok, content delivery services and other technical transactions. Donald Trump’s administration contends that TikTok poses national security concerns as personal data collected on 100 million Americans who use the app could be obtained by China’s government. TikTok denies the allegations. Beetlestone wrote the “government’s own descriptions of the national security threat posed by the TikTok app are phrased in the hypothetical”. The popular video-sharing app has said its future is stuck in limbo ever since Trump tried to shut it down earlier this fall. In August, Trump signed an executive order to ban TikTok if it did not sell its US operations in 45 days. The move forced ByteDance to consider deals with several American companies before ultimately settling on a proposal to place TikTok under the oversight of the American companies Oracle and Walmart, each of which would also have a financial stake in the company.