The Supreme Court has agreed to hear TikTok’s challenge to a federal law that could ban the popular social media app in the United States if its Chinese owner doesn’t sell the platform to an American company.
TikTok appealed to the high court after a federal appeals court earlier this month upheld the law that is set to go into effect on Jan. 19. The company, owned by China-based ByteDance, then asked the federal appeals court to block the law from going into effect temporarily, pending the outcome of its appeal to the Supreme Court. The federal appeals court denied that request.
The Supreme Court granted review of TikTok’s challenge a day after the company filed its appeal. Oral arguments in the case are scheduled for Jan. 10. The justices declined, for now, to temporarily pause the law’s implementation.
The law, called the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, stems from bipartisan concerns that the Chinese government could access data about American users. TikTok argues the law violates free speech rights under the First Amendment rights for its roughly 170 million American users.
The law is set to go into effect one day before President-elect Donald Trump is inaugurated, though the law allows for a 90-day extension if there is progress toward a sale. As my colleague Clarissa-Jan Lim wrote last week: Trump, whose executive order to ban TikTok in 2020 was quickly rescinded by [President Joe] Biden, has since indicated that he opposes a ban on the app. But it’s unclear what exactly he intends to do about the impending ban: When asked by The New York Times about Trump’s plans for the app, a spokesperson for his transition team, Karoline Leavitt, said Trump “will deliver” on his campaign promises.
Hayley Miller is the senior breaking news and blogs editor for MS NOW.
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