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China’s ByteDance and its short-video app TikTok asked an appeals court on Monday to temporarily block a law that would require parent company ByteDance to spin off TikTok by January 19 or face an injunction pending review by the U.S. Supreme Court.
The companies filed an emergency motion with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, warning that without the order, the law would take effect and “shut down TikTok — one of the most popular speech platforms in the United States — to its more than 170 million users.” Domestic monthly users on the eve of taking office.
On Friday, a three-judge panel of the Court of Appeal upheld the law requiring ByteDance to divest TikTok in the United States by early next year or face a ban in just six weeks.
Lawyers for the companies said the likelihood that the Supreme Court would take up the case and throw it out was “high enough to warrant a temporary stay to create time for further deliberations”.
The companies also noted that President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to block the ban, saying a delay “will provide the incoming administration time to determine its position, which could trigger imminent harm and the need for Supreme Court review.”
The Justice Department had no immediate comment.
The decision – unless the Supreme Court overturns it – puts TikTok’s fate in the hands of first-term President Joe Biden, with a decision on whether to extend the Jan. 19 deadline by 90 days to force a sale and then to 1 In the hands of Trump, who took office in March.
Trump, who unsuccessfully tried to ban TikTok during his first term in 2020, said before the November presidential election that he would not allow TikTok to be banned.
The decision upholds a law that gives the U.S. government sweeping authority to ban other foreign-owned apps that could raise concerns about collecting data on Americans. In 2020, Trump also tried to ban WeChat, owned by Tencent, but was blocked by the court.
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