U.S. Court Rejects TikTok's Plea to Postpone Imminent Ban
TikTok is required to act swiftly in seeking intervention from the Supreme Court to block or overturn a law mandating its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to divest from the short-video platform by January 19. This comes after an appeals court denied a request for an extension on Friday.
TroibNews 
TikTok is now pressed to act urgently, as a recent ruling from an appeals court has denied its request for more time to challenge a law that mandates its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to divest from the short-video platform by January 19.
The emergency motion submitted by TikTok and ByteDance to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia earlier this week sought an extension to present their case to the U.S. Supreme Court.
In their filings, the companies cautioned that without judicial intervention, the law would "shut down TikTok – one of the nation's most popular speech platforms – for its more than 170 million domestic monthly users."
However, the court rejected their request, noting that TikTok and ByteDance failed to cite a precedent "in which a court, after rejecting a constitutional challenge to an Act of Congress, has enjoined the Act from going into effect while review is sought in the Supreme Court," according to the unanimous order issued on Friday.
Following the ruling, a spokesperson for TikTok indicated that the company intends to bring its case before the Supreme Court, highlighting that "which has an established historical record of protecting Americans' right to free speech."
As stipulated by the law, TikTok faces a ban unless ByteDance divests the app by January 19, which also grants the U.S. government extensive authority to prohibit other foreign-owned applications that may pose risks regarding the management of Americans' data.
The U.S. Justice Department has maintained that "continued Chinese control of the TikTok application poses a continuing threat to national security."
In response, TikTok contends that the Justice Department has inaccurately characterized its connections to China, emphasizing that its content recommendation system and user information are stored domestically on cloud servers provided by Oracle, and that decisions regarding content moderation for U.S. users are made within the U.S.
Unless overturned by the Supreme Court, this ruling places TikTok's future in the hands of Democratic President Joe Biden, who must decide whether to allow a 90-day extension on the January 19 divestment deadline, and subsequently in the hands of Republican President-elect Donald Trump, who is set to assume office on January 20.
Trump had previously attempted to impose a ban on TikTok during his first presidential term in 2020 and stated prior to the November election that he would not permit a TikTok ban.
Additionally, on Friday, the chair and leading Democrat on a U.S. House committee focused on China communicated to the CEOs of Google-parent Alphabet and Apple that they must prepare to remove TikTok from their U.S. app stores by January 19.
Emily Johnson for TROIB News
The emergency motion submitted by TikTok and ByteDance to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia earlier this week sought an extension to present their case to the U.S. Supreme Court.
In their filings, the companies cautioned that without judicial intervention, the law would "shut down TikTok – one of the nation's most popular speech platforms – for its more than 170 million domestic monthly users."
However, the court rejected their request, noting that TikTok and ByteDance failed to cite a precedent "in which a court, after rejecting a constitutional challenge to an Act of Congress, has enjoined the Act from going into effect while review is sought in the Supreme Court," according to the unanimous order issued on Friday.
Following the ruling, a spokesperson for TikTok indicated that the company intends to bring its case before the Supreme Court, highlighting that "which has an established historical record of protecting Americans' right to free speech."
As stipulated by the law, TikTok faces a ban unless ByteDance divests the app by January 19, which also grants the U.S. government extensive authority to prohibit other foreign-owned applications that may pose risks regarding the management of Americans' data.
The U.S. Justice Department has maintained that "continued Chinese control of the TikTok application poses a continuing threat to national security."
In response, TikTok contends that the Justice Department has inaccurately characterized its connections to China, emphasizing that its content recommendation system and user information are stored domestically on cloud servers provided by Oracle, and that decisions regarding content moderation for U.S. users are made within the U.S.
Unless overturned by the Supreme Court, this ruling places TikTok's future in the hands of Democratic President Joe Biden, who must decide whether to allow a 90-day extension on the January 19 divestment deadline, and subsequently in the hands of Republican President-elect Donald Trump, who is set to assume office on January 20.
Trump had previously attempted to impose a ban on TikTok during his first presidential term in 2020 and stated prior to the November election that he would not permit a TikTok ban.
Additionally, on Friday, the chair and leading Democrat on a U.S. House committee focused on China communicated to the CEOs of Google-parent Alphabet and Apple that they must prepare to remove TikTok from their U.S. app stores by January 19.
Emily Johnson for TROIB News
