TikTok’s fate hangs in balance as ByteDance appeals to US Supreme Court

Chinese-based ByteDance and its short-video app TikTok on Monday asked an appeal court to temporarily block a law that would require that parent company ByteDance to divest TikTok by January 19 or face a ban, pending a review by the US Supreme Court.

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 Friday, a three-judge panel of the appeal court upheld the law requiring ByteDance to divest TikTok in the United States by early next year or face a ban in just six weeks.

“Before that happens, the Supreme Court should have an opportunity, as the only court with appellate jurisdiction over this action, to decide whether to review this exceptionally important case,” lawyers for the two companies wrote in the legal filing on Monday.

The Justice Department did not immediately comment.

The companies also noted 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.”