Friday, December 20, 2024

Court denies TikTok’s request to halt enforcement of potential US ban until Supreme Court review

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A federal appeals court on Friday 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 the company’s request 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’s unclear if the nation’s highest court will take up the case, though some legal experts 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 also is looking for a potential lifeline from President-elect Donald Trump, who promised to “save” the short-form video platform during the presidential campaign.







A neon TikTok logo hangs in the lobby of the TikTok office building in Culver City, Calif., on Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel)




Attorneys for TikTok and ByteDance requested the injunction after a panel of three judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit sided with the U.S. government and rejected their challenge to the law.

The court rejected that request Friday, calling it “unwarranted.”

“The petitioners have not identified any case 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,” said the court’s order, which was unsigned.

The statute, which was signed by President Joe Biden this year, requires ByteDance to sell TikTok to an approved buyer due to national security concerns or face a ban in the U.S.

The U.S. said it sees TikTok as a national security risk because Chinese authorities could coerce ByteDance to hand over U.S. user data or manipulate content on the platform for Beijing’s interests.

TikTok denied those claims and argued that the government’s case rests on hypothetical future risks instead of proven facts.

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In the request filed this week, attorneys for TikTok and ByteDance asked for a “modest delay” in enforcement of the law so 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 said the popular app will shut down by Jan. 19 — a day before Trump takes office again. More than 170 million American users would be affected, the companies said.

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

The appeals court issued its Dec. 6 ruling on the matter in line with that schedule, the Justice Department filing said.

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