Authored by David Shepardson and Kanishka Singh
In a recent development, TikTok is facing a deadline of January 19 to divest from its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, as per a law that was rejected for more time by an appeals court on Friday.
TikTok and ByteDance had filed an emergency motion with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia seeking more time to present their case to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The companies expressed concern that the law would result in the shutdown of TikTok, a popular platform with over 170 million monthly users in the U.S., if no court action is taken.
However, the court denied the request, stating that TikTok and ByteDance failed to provide a precedent where a court has prevented an Act of Congress from taking effect while seeking Supreme Court review.
A spokesperson for TikTok mentioned that they plan to appeal to the Supreme Court, emphasizing the importance of protecting Americans’ right to free speech.
If ByteDance does not divest TikTok by January 19, the app will be banned under the law, which also grants the U.S. government authority to ban other foreign-owned apps that raise data collection concerns.
The U.S. Justice Department argues that Chinese control of TikTok poses a national security threat, while TikTok disputes this claim, highlighting its U.S.-based data storage and content moderation processes.
The fate of TikTok now rests on President Joe Biden’s decision to extend the deadline and President-elect Donald Trump’s actions upon taking office on January 20.
Despite previous attempts to ban TikTok, President Trump stated before the election that he would not support the ban.
Furthermore, the chair and top Democrat of a U.S. House committee on China urged Google-parent Alphabet and Apple CEOs to be prepared to remove TikTok from their app stores on January 19.