TikTok seeks temporary halt to potential US ban pending a Supreme Court review

TikTok and its Chinese parent ByteDance asked a federal appeal court on Monday to temporarily block a law that could lead to a US ban of the popular short-video app next month pending a review by the US Supreme Court.

The emergency motion filed with the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit argued that without such relief, TikTok would shut down “for its more than 170 million domestic monthly users”.

“A modest delay in enforcing the act will simply create breathing room for the Supreme Court to conduct an orderly review and for the incoming administration to evaluate this matter – before one of this country’s most important speech platforms is shuttered,” the motion said.

On Friday, a three-judge panel of the appeal court unanimously upheld the law, which requires ByteDance to sell TikTok to a non-Chinese company or else face a ban of the platform on January 19.

In reaching its decision the panel found that “the government acted solely to protect that freedom from a foreign adversary nation and to limit that adversary’s ability to gather data on people in the United States”.

Citing national security concerns that Beijing could pressure ByteDance to manipulate TikTok’s algorithm and collect personal data to harm US interests – claims TikTok has denied – Congress passed, and US President Joe Biden signed, the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act in April.