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The Chinese-owned social media app is running out of time before it’s either forcefully sold or banned in the US.
The clock is ticking by fast for TikTok, as the social media platform and its China-based owner ByteDance have applied for an emergency application, requesting the US Supreme Court to block the law that would either force ByteDance to sell TikTok or see the platform banned in the country.
In its application to the country’s top court yesterday (16 December), the social media platform said that the US Congress “has enacted a massive and unprecedented speech restriction”, with its move, calling itself one of the country’s “most popular and important venues for communication”.
Moreover, the app appeals that an injunction “will not materially harm the government”, adding that “there is no imminent threat to national security”.
TikTok wants the US Supreme Court to block the act brought in by outgoing US president Joe Biden earlier this year until further review by the Court and by the incoming Trump administration.
In its application, the platform has asked the Court to make a decision by 6 January, thereby, allowing it time to shut down TikTok in the country by the 19 January deadline in case the injunction is once again rejected.
Meanwhile, president-elect Donald Trump – a recently turned supporter of the app – met with TikTok CEO Shou Chew at his Mar-a-Lago club yesterday, sources revealed to CNN. Trump, who had previously attempted to ban the app himself during his previous administration, has since joined the platform and made campaign claims that he will “save TikTok in America” if he won the election.
The platform’s appeals to top decision-makers follows after numerous attempts to block the outgoing US government’s move, with the app even starting the process of suing the US government in May of this year. Moreover, yesterday, a US federal appeals court rejected the platform’s request for a previous injunction filed last week.
The outgoing US government saw TikTok as a risk to national security due to ByteDance’s relationship with China. Previous media investigations into the platform have claimed that TikTok had stored the data of some US and European users on servers in China, while some of its former employees told Fortune that the company’s independence from China is largely cosmetic.
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