ByteDance, TikTok seek temporary halt to US ban pending Supreme Court review
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
ByteDance and its short-video app TikTok filed an emergency motion with the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Follow topic:
WASHINGTON – Chinese-based ByteDance and its short-video app TikTok on Dec 9 asked an appeals court to temporarily block a law that would require parent company ByteDance to divest TikTok by Jan 19 or face a ban
The companies filed the emergency motion with the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, warning that without the order, the law will take effect and will “shut down TikTok – one of the nation’s most popular speech platforms – for its more than 170 million domestic monthly users on the eve of a presidential inauguration”.
On Dec 6, a three-judge panel of the appeals court upheld the law
Lawyers for the companies said the prospect the Supreme Court will take the case “and reverse is sufficiently high to warrant the temporary pause needed to create time for further deliberation”.
The companies also noted US President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to prevent a ban, arguing the delay “will give the incoming administration time to determine its position – which could moot both the impending harms and the need for Supreme Court review”.
The US Justice Department did not immediately comment.
The decision – unless the Supreme Court reverses it – puts TikTok’s fate in the hands of US President Joe Biden on whether to grant a 90-day extension of the Jan 19 deadline to force a sale and then of Trump, who takes office on Jan 20.
But it is not clear whether ByteDance could meet the heavy burden to show it had made significant progress toward a divestiture needed to trigger the extension.
Trump, who unsuccessfully tried to ban TikTok during his first term in 2020, said before the November presidential election he would not allow the ban on TikTok
The decision upholds the law that gives the US government sweeping powers to ban other foreign-owned apps that could raise concerns about collection of Americans’ data.
In 2020, Trump also tried to ban Tencent-owned WeChat, but was blocked by the courts. REUTERS
