The Trump administration has said it would not back down from a plan to ban new US downloads of the popular video-sharing app TikTok, setting up a court showdown ahead of today's deadline.
A Justice Department court filing on Friday said it opposes TikTok's petition for an injunction to block the order from President Donald Trump, who has called the Chinese-owned social platform a national security risk.
US District Judge Carl Nichols set a hearing for 9am today in Washington (9.30pm Singapore time) for TikTok's request to block the President's order before it takes effect at 11.59pm.
Government lawyers said they wanted to file a brief "under seal", which would not be available as a public record, citing national security and confidential business information.
The court filing said TikTok had tentatively agreed to sealed briefs but would reserve the right to request that some documents be made public.
TikTok has argued that a ban, even if temporary, could cause irreparable harm to the video-sharing application, which has some 100 million users across the United States.
Judge Nichols, who sits on the bench in Washington, said on Thursday that he disagreed with government lawyers' claims that the banwhich would not immediately prevent usage of TikTok but prevent downloads by new users and updates"merely preserves the status quo".
Analysts also pointed out that any ban could prevent users from downloading updates and security patches for TikTok.
Earlier this month, Mr Trump cited national security concerns and issued orders to ban both TikTok and the popular Chinese app WeChat. The ban on WeChat has been put on hold in a separate court case in California. But the TikTok order stops short of a full ban until Nov 12, giving the firm's Chinese parent firm ByteDance time to conclude a deal to transfer ownership of the app.
A tentative deal unveiled last weekend would make Silicon Valley giant Oracle the technology partner for TikTok and a stakeholder in a new entity to be known as TikTok Global.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE