A federal appeals court has left in place a mid-January deadline in a federal law requiring TikTok to be sold or face a ban in the United States, rejecting a request made by the company to halt enforcement until the Supreme Court reviews its challenge of the statute.
Attorneys for TikTok and its China-based parent company, ByteDance, are expected to appeal to the Supreme Court.
It is unclear if the nation’s highest court will take up the case, though some legal experts have said they expect the justices to weigh in due to the types of novel questions it raises about social media, national security and the First Amendment.
TikTok is also looking for a potential lifeline from President-elect Donald Trump, who promised to “save” the short-form video platform during the presidential campaign.
Attorneys for TikTok and ByteDance had requested the injunction after a panel of three judges on the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit sided with the US government and rejected their challenge to the law.
The statute, which was signed by President Joe Biden earlier this year, requires ByteDance to sell TikTok to an approved buyer due to national security concerns or face a ban in the US.
The US has said it sees TikTok as a national security risk because ByteDance could be coerced by Chinese authorities to hand over US user data or manipulate content on the platform for Beijing’s interests. TikTok has denied those claims and has argued that the government’s case rests on hypothetical future risks instead of proven facts.
In the request filed last week, attorneys for TikTok and ByteDance had asked for a “modest delay” in enforcement of the law so that the Supreme Court could review the case and the incoming Trump administration could “determine its position” on the matter.
If the law is not overturned, the two companies have said that the popular app will shut down by January 19, just a day before Trump takes office again. More than 170 million American users would be affected, the companies have said.
The Justice Department had opposed TikTok’s request for a pause, saying in a court filing last week that the parties had already proposed a schedule that was “designed for the precise purpose” of allowing Supreme Court review of the law before it took effect.
The appeals court issued its December 6 ruling on the matter in line with that schedule, the Justice Department filing said.
Meanwhile, two influential US lawmakers, including Indian-American Raja Krishnamoorthi, have asked Google and Apple to remove TikTok from their app stores ahead of a potential ban on the video-sharing platform next month.
Ahead of the January 19 deadline, House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Chair John Moolenaar and Ranking Member Krishnamoorthi on Friday wrote to Apple CEO Tim Cook, Google CEO Sundar Pichai and TikTok CEO Shou Chew.
The lawmakers asked Cook and Pichai to prepare to remove TikTok from their play stores by January 19. In their letter to the TikTok CEO, they urged Chew to “immediately execute a qualified divestiture”.
All three letters come after the DC Circuit Court’s 3-0 opinion that upheld the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act.
In the letters to Cook and Pichai, the lawmakers said, “Today, we sent a letter to TikTok highlighting that Congress has provided ample time—233 days and counting—for the company to take the necessary steps to comply with the law and pursue a divestment that protects US national security.”