Supreme Court to Hear TikTok’s Appeal Jan. 10
The U.S. Supreme Court reportedly said Wednesday (Dec. 18) that it will hear TikTok’s appeal of a law that would see the app banned in the United States if it is not sold by its Chinese parent company, ByteDance.
The court scheduled arguments in the case for Jan. 10, Bloomberg reported Wednesday.
It also deferred acting on TikTok’s request to temporarily block the law while it is being considered by the court, deciding instead to schedule a hearing that will allow a ruling before Jan. 19, which is the date the law is to take effect, according to the report.
When TikTok asked the Supreme Court for an emergency injunction of the law Monday (Dec. 16), the company said it was asking the court to apply rigorous scrutiny to the law, as it has done with other “free speech bans,” and conclude that the law violates the First Amendment.
“The TikTok ban results in a massive and unprecedented censorship of over 170 million Americans on January 19, 2025,” the company said in a Monday press release. “Estimates show that small businesses on TikTok would lose more than $1 billion in revenue and creators would suffer almost $300 million in lost earnings in just one month unless the ban is halted.”
The bill was signed into law by President Joe Biden in April amid concerns that the TikTok app presented a national security threat.
On Dec. 6, a federal appeals court ruled that the law does not violate the First Amendment. The three-judge panel said the Chinese government enacted laws that allow it to access and use data held by Chinese companies.
If the law takes effect Jan. 19, the day before President-elect Donald Trump is inaugurated, the enforcement of the law would be subject to the new administration, as the Department of Justice is charged with enforcing it, and Trump would be able to approve any proposed divestment of TikTok, according to the Bloomberg report.
The law does not require people to remove the TikTok app, but it bars companies from supporting the app, makes the app unavailable to people who don’t already have it, and will eventually make it so that current users can no longer access it, per the report.
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