ByteDance, TikTok seek temporary halt to US ban pending Supreme Court review
Source: Reuters
December 9, 2024 3:46 PM EST Updated an hour ago
WASHINGTON, Dec 9 (Reuters) - China-based ByteDance and its short-video app TikTok on Monday asked an appeals court to temporarily block a law that would require that parent company ByteDance divest TikTok by Jan. 19 or face a ban, pending a review by the U.S. Supreme Court.
The companies filed the emergency motion with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, warning that without the order the law will take effect and will "shut down TikTok—one of the nation’s most popular speech platforms—for its more than 170 million domestic monthly users on the eve of a presidential inauguration." Without the injunction, TikTok could be banned in the U.S. in six weeks, making the company far less valuable to ByteDance and its investors, and slamming the businesses that depend on TikTok to drive their sales.
On Friday, a three-judge panel of the appeals court upheld the law requiring ByteDance to divest TikTok in the United States by early next year or face a ban in just six weeks. Lawyers for the companies said the prospect the Supreme Court will take the case "and reverse is sufficiently high to warrant the temporary pause needed to create time for further deliberation."
The companies also noted President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to prevent a ban, arguing the delay "will give the incoming administration time to determine its position -- which could moot both the impending harms and the need for Supreme Court review."
Read more: https://www.reuters.com/legal/bytedance-tiktok-seek-temporary-halt-us-crackdown-law-pending-supreme-court-2024-12-09/
= new reply since forum marked as read
