TikTok Asks U.S. Supreme Court to Temporarily Block Upcoming January Ban

Social network TikTok today asked the U.S. Supreme Court to temporarily halt an imminent ban as TikTok waits for the appeal process to play out. TikTok is set to be banned from U.S. app stores starting on January 19 because parent company ByteDance did not sell TikTok to a non-Chinese company as mandated by a bill in April.

tiktok logo

TikTok is calling on the Supreme Court to hear its appeal, and it is sticking with the free speech argument that the lower appeals court denied. The petition that TikTok submitted to the Supreme Court claims that Congress has "enacted a massive and unprecedented speech restriction," and that TikTok is one of the "most popular and important venues for communication" in the U.S.

U.S. lawmakers gave ByteDance nine months to sell TikTok to a company not located in China, but ByteDance has maintained that doing so would be impossible. ByteDance says that it is not able to give the TikTok source code to a new owner because it would take years for engineers to become familiar enough with it to perform routine maintenance, and ByteDance also does not plan to allow a third-party company to access its TikTok algorithm.


Further, China has said that it will firmly oppose any sale of the TikTok app, and any sale would need to be approved by the Chinese government. Per the terms of the bill, if TikTok is not sold off, app store owners Google, Apple, and others will be required to stop distributing the app in January. If TikTok is ultimately banned, users who have downloaded the app already would be able to continue to use it so long as it stayed functional, but there would be no distribution method for getting the app in the United States.

U.S. lawmakers want TikTok sold to a company outside of China over concerns that the Chinese government could force ByteDance to hand over information from users in the United States, plus there have been suggestions that China could use TikTok to spread political propaganda.

It is possible that the ban on TikTok could be lifted or delayed by President-elect Donald Trump. According to CNBC, Trump told reporters on Monday that his administration will "take a look at TikTok." Trump tried to ban TikTok when he was in office, but said this year that he opposes the law that Congress passed.

Note: Due to the political or social nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Political News forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

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Top Rated Comments

HandsomeDanNZ Avatar
10 months ago
Tik Tok should be banned worldwide for the serious crime of making people dumber.
Score: 35 Votes (Like | Disagree)
rgeneral Avatar
10 months ago
Block it. While you are at it, block FB and instagram as well
Score: 25 Votes (Like | Disagree)
freakomac Avatar
10 months ago
Zuck will certainly love tiktok ban, get ready for more Insta-spam
Score: 21 Votes (Like | Disagree)
WarmWinterHat Avatar
10 months ago
If the government has proof that TikTok is doing something nefarious, they need to present it openly to the public for any and all to see, without restriction.

This behind-doors "trust us" legislation just doesn’t work for me, nor does "well, china is doing it too!, waaa!"...that's all the more to reason to not block it.

No tit-for-tat.
Score: 15 Votes (Like | Disagree)
delsoul Avatar
10 months ago
Why is a Chinese company so obsessed with being available in a Foreign country. Tik tok isn’t wanted. Deal with it. Maybe Facebook can cry to the chinese Supreme Court constantly so it can be be available to Chinese? Google, as well?
Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)
icanhazmac Avatar
10 months ago
I understand the slippery slope here, all the other major social networks whore up data as well, but there are inexorable ties between Chinese companies and the Chinese Communist Party which are of concern. Perhaps not for Joe Public but for anyone employed by the US Government, including military folks and contractors, this is a major concern.
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)