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 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.
Statement on Filing Application for Emergency Injunction Pending Appeal with the Supreme Court: ""The Supreme Court has an established record of upholding Americans’ right to free speech. Today, we are asking the Court to do what it has traditionally done in free speech cases:… — TikTok Policy (@TikTokPolicy) December 16, 2024
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.
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