TikTok has submitted a legal request to temporarily block a new law in the US that requires the app’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to sell it to a non-Chinese entity – or face being banned in the country from mid-next month, the BBC reports.
The short-form video streaming platform lost its bid to overturn the law on 6 December. In the appeal, ByteDance and TikTok argued that the law was unconstitutional given the curbing effect banning TikTok would have on free speech in the US (where it has about 170 million users).
It has now asked for a temporary injunction in the hope the Supreme Court will consider the matter, and because US President-elect Donald Trump has previously indicated he might cancel the new law, which was signed by outgoing President Joe Biden. Trump takes office on 20 January.
“The public interest favours providing sufficient time for the Supreme Court to conduct an orderly review process, and for the incoming administration to evaluate this exceptionally important case,” ByteDance and TikTok said in their emergency legal filing.
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The US Department of Justice has called for their request to be dismissed because the underlying arguments were already “definitively rejected” by three federal judges, who also emphasised that it was the result of “extensive, bipartisan action.”
Those judges deemed that the law had been “carefully crafted to deal only with control by a foreign adversary, and it was part of a broader effort to counter” what Washington believes to be “a well-substantiated national security threat” posed by Beijing.
Lawmakers on both sides of the US political spectrum believe a Chinese-owned TikTok poses risks to national security, as Beijing could theoretically compel ByteDance to hand user data over to the Chinese government. TikTok has repeatedly denied claims the Chinese government has any control over ByteDance, which has itself repeatedly said it has no plans to sell the immensely popular app.
Even as the US attempts to shut down TikTok within its borders, Washington itself has been increasing the powers of its National Security Agency to compel American companies to hand over data. In May, President Biden signed a new law subjecting US corporations and their users to what have been described as “warrantless and secretive surveillance practices.”
