ByteDance, TikTok seek temporary halt to US ban pending Supreme Court review
WASHINGTON – Chinese-based ByteDance and its short-video app TikTok on Monday asked an appeals court to temporarily block a law that would require parent company ByteDance to divest TikTok by Jan. 19 or face a ban, pending a review by the U.S. Supreme Court.
The companies filed the emergency motion with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, warning that without an injunction, the law will take effect and effectively shut down TikTok—one of the nation’s most popular platforms, impacting over 170 million monthly users.
On Friday, a three-judge panel of the appeals court upheld the law requiring ByteDance to divest TikTok in the United States by early next year or face a ban in just six weeks.
Lawyers for the companies said the prospect the Supreme Court will take the case “and reverse is sufficiently high to warrant the temporary pause needed to create time for further deliberation.”
The companies also noted President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to prevent a ban, arguing the delay “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 Justice Department did not immediately comment.
The decision—unless reversed by the Supreme Court—places TikTok’s fate in the hands of President Joe Biden, who must decide whether to grant a 90-day extension of the January 19 deadline for a forced sale, and then in the hands of President Trump, who will take office on January 20. However, it remains unclear whether ByteDance can demonstrate significant progress toward a divestiture to justify triggering the extension.
