this Supreme Court TikTok agreed on Wednesday to hear arguments as TikTok seeks to block a law that could see the popular social media app banned, pending the company’s appeal of a lower court ruling upholding the law.
The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments in the case on January 10, nine days before the law takes effect.
The high court order came two days after TikTok filed a petition seeking a ban on the law.
“Congress’ unprecedented attempt to single out applicants and bar them from operating one of the nation’s most important speech platforms raises serious constitutional questions that this court may not allow to stand,” the company said in its filing.
The law would require TikTok’s Chinese parent company ByteDance to sell the app by January 19 or force Google, Apple and other platforms to stop supporting the app in the United States.
Congress passed the Foreign Adversaries Controlled Apps Act amid concerns that TikTok’s Chinese ownership posed a national security risk.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld the law on Dec. 6, ruling that the Justice Department “presented persuasive evidence that the divestment law “was specifically designed to protect national security.”
President-elect Donald Trump met with TikTok executive Changzi Zhou at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida on Monday, the same day the company asked the Supreme Court to hear the case.
Earlier in the day, when Trump was asked about a potential ban, he told reporters, “We will look at TikTok.”
“You know, I have a warm place in my heart for TikTok,” Trump said, suggesting the app boosted support for him among young voters during the November election.
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