Under bipartisan legislation signed into law by President Joe Biden in April, TikTok faces a potential ban in the U.S. on January 19, 2025, unless its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, sells the platform to a non-Chinese-owned company.
TikTok has argued that the proposed ban, set in motion by the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, violates First Amendment rights. The app repeated these claims in its latest court filings, stating: “Congress’s unprecedented attempt to single out applicants and bar them from operating one of the most significant speech platforms in this nation presents grave constitutional problems that this court likely will not allow to stand,” in an emergency application filed on Monday.
While lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have raised concerns about the Chinese-owned platform’s potential national security risks to the U.S., TikTok’s lawyers argue that the new law constitutes a “speech ban,” warning it “will silence the speech of applicants and the many Americans who use the platform to communicate about politics, commerce, arts, and other matters of public concern.”
The U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., recently denied TikTok’s request to delay the law’s implementation, prompting the company to appeal to the Supreme Court. TikTok has asked the Court to make a decision by January 6, less than two weeks before 170 million U.S. users could lose access to the platform.
The potential ban is set to take effect on January 19, the day before President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration on January 20.
Trump has indicated he may be open to negotiations over keeping TikTok in the U.S., saying in a press conference on Monday that he holds a “warm spot in my heart” for the platform, which he believes played a role in helping him win over young voters and secure a second term in the White House.
“We’ll take a look at TikTok,” Trump said. “I have a warm spot in my heart for TikTok because I won youth by 34 points, and there are those that say TikTok had something to do with that.”
The president-elect reportedly met with TikTok CEO Shou Chew at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Monday.
