US court denies TikTok’s plea to stop likely ban until Supreme Court review

TikTok spokesperson says the company’s Chinese owners plan to take its case to the Supreme Court.

A United States federal appeals court has rejected a request by the social media platform TikTok to halt enforcement of a law requiring the company’s Chinese owners to divest or face a ban in the country until the Supreme Court reviews its challenge of the statute.

In a decision issued on Friday, the court rejected TikTok’s request, calling it “unwarranted”.

The court’s – unsigned – order said TikTok had not identified precedents where a court, “after rejecting a constitutional challenge to an Act of Congress”, stopped the Act from being implemented until a Supreme Court review is sought.

Lawyers for TikTok and its owner 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.

In the request, the lawyers had asked for a “modest delay” in enforcing the law so the Supreme Court could review the case and the incoming Trump administration could “determine its position” on the matter.

The ruling that demanded Tiktok’s sale

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.

A TikTok spokesperson said after the ruling that the company plans to take its case to the Supreme Court, “which has an established historical record of protecting Americans’ right to free speech”.

It is unclear if the Supreme 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.

During his first term, he unsuccessfully tried to ban TikTok.

Can be coerced by China?

The US says 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 denies those claims and argues that the government’s case rests on hypothetical future risks instead of proven facts.

If the law is not overturned, the two companies say 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 company said. Most of the users belong to the younger segment of the population.

The US Justice Department had opposed TikTok’s request for a pause, saying in a court filing this week that the parties had already proposed a schedule that was “designed for the precise purpose” of allowing a Supreme Court review of the law before it took effect.

Also on Friday, the chairman and top Democrat on a US House of Representatives committee on China told the CEOs of Google-parent Alphabet and Apple that they must be ready to remove TikTok from their US app stores on January 19.