TikTok Owner Pleads For Legal Relief Against US TikTok Ban

ByteDance, the Chinese conglomerate that owns TikTok, approached an appeals court Monday to temporarily halt a ruling that mandates the company either sell TikTok or face a ban in the United States by Jan. 19.

ByteDance sought an injunction from the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., seeking to preserve the app’s operational status while awaiting a potential review from the U.S. Supreme Court, according to CNN. The legal team representing ByteDance said that the chances of the Supreme Court reversing the decision are strong enough to justify a temporary reprieve and this pause would provide time for further legal arguments and considerations.

In contrast, the U.S. Justice Department urged the appeals court to quickly reject TikTok’s plea to allow the Supreme Court ample time to review the matter, CNN reported. TikTok requested that the appeals court make a decision by Dec. 16.

The appeal follows a federal court decision on Friday mandating that ByteDance either divest its U.S. operations or face a ban. The unanimous decision by the three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit dismissed First Amendment concerns and categorized TikTok as a national security threat due to potential manipulation by the Chinese government.

TikTok, used by more than 170 million Americans each month, faces imminent disruption of its services both domestically and internationally if the court’s ruling goes into effect, CNN reported. The platform warned that hundreds of American service providers essential for the app’s maintenance and updates would be unable to continue their support from Jan. 19 onwards.

The company, which faces accusations of surveilling Americans’ political preferences and illegally harvesting children’s data, has legally contested the divest-or-ban law, while Chinese embassy officials have actively opposed the legislation in Washington. TikTok has repeatedly refuted allegations of connections with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), though a former senior ByteDance employee claimed CCP members in the company can access American user data through “superuser” capabilities and “backdoor channels.” A study by Network Contagion Research Institute and Rutgers University suggests the app promotes CCP-favorable content.

The fate of TikTok hinges on multiple high-level decisions as it initially depended on whether President Joe Biden will extend the Jan. 19 deadline by 90 days, which then passes the matter to President-elect Donald Trump, who resumes office on Jan. 20, CNN said. During his presidential campaign, Trump promised to block the ban, according to The Associated Press.

Trump, who previously attempted to prohibit the social media platform during his earlier tenure in the White House, consistently vowed to block any ban on the short-form video app.