TikTok is racing against the clock to appeal to the US Supreme Court after a US appeals court denied its plea for extra time to defend a rule mandating its Chinese parent firm, ByteDance, to sell the app by January 19.
Earlier this week, TikTok and ByteDance filed an emergency move with the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, demanding more time to submit their case to the Supreme Court. Without legal assistance, the corporations warned that the app would be shut down. “TikTok—one of the nation’s most popular speech platforms—risks being shut down for its more than 170 million domestic monthly users,” they warned in court documents, according to Reuters.
However, the appeals court denied their request, stating TikTok and ByteDance failed to cite precedent “in which a court, after rejecting a constitutional challenge to an act passed by Congress, has enjoined the Act from going into effect while go over is sought in the Supreme Court,” according to the unanimous decision cited by Reuters.
A TikTok spokeswoman underlined the company’s intention to pursue the issue, adding, “We intend to take this matter to the Supreme Court, which has a long history of protecting Americans’ right to free expression.”
ByteDance is required by law to divest TikTok by January 19, or the app will be banned in the United States. The proposal also gives the government the authority to restrict other foreign-owned apps based on worries about American data security.
The US Justice Department asserts that “continued Chinese control of the TikTok application constitutes a continuing threat to national security.” TikTok responds that its data systems are based in the United States and run by Oracle, with content control handled domestically.
The Supreme Court judgment might leave TikTok’s survival in the hands of Democratic President Joe Biden, who could grant a 90-day extension, or Republican President-elect Donald Trump, who takes office on January 20th. Trump, who wanted to ban TikTok in 2020, has previously claimed that he is opposed to the app’s ban. Separately, the Democratic chairman of the House Committee on China encouraged Google and Apple to plan to remove TikTok from US app stores before the deadline.