TikTok and ByteDance, its China-based parent company, will be banned in the U.S. on Jan. 19, 2025, unless ByteDance divests. If successful, the motion would stop the ban from taking place while the company’s appeal of the decision by the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit is heard by the Supreme Court.
The company said the Supreme Court should be given an opportunity to delve into the matter, given it is an “exceptionally important case” that could force a ban of “one of the Nation’s most popular speech platforms,” which they claim has 170 million users in the United States.
“An injunction is especially appropriate because it will give the incoming administration time to determine its position, which could moot both the impending harms and the need for Supreme Court review,” the companies said.
Last week, a three-judge panel from the appeals court upheld the TikTok divest-or-ban law. The panel found that the divest-or-ban law was not in violation of the First Amendment, although TikTok has argued the ban is unconstitutional.
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The law, passed in April, required ByteDance to divest from TikTok by the Jan. 19 deadline or face a ban on U.S. networks and app stores.
During President-elect Donald Trump’s first term, he vowed to ban the app due to its ties to the Chinese Communist Party, but when running for office again in 2024, he reversed this position. During his campaign, he enticed voters to vote for him based on a promise to protect it from being banned across the nation.
