US Supreme Court to consider TikTok bid to halt ban

The US Supreme Court has decided to hear a bid by TikTok and its China-based parent company ByteDance to block a law intended to force the sale of the short-video app by January 19 or face a ban on national security grounds.

The justices did not immediately act on an emergency request by TikTok and ByteDance, as well as some of its users who post content on the social media platform, for an injunction to halt the looming ban but optedi instead to hear arguments on the matter on January 10.

The challengers are appealing a lower court's ruling that upheld the law.

TikTok is used by about 170 million people in the United States.

Congress passed the measure in April.

The Justice Department had said that as a Chinese company, TikTok poses "a national-security threat of immense depth and scale" because of its access to vast amounts of data on US users, from locations to private messages, and its ability to secretly manipulate content that users view on the app.

TikTok has said it poses no imminent threat to US security.

TikTok and ByteDance asked the Supreme Court on December 16 to pause the law, which they said violates free speech protections under the US Constitution's First Amendment.

The companies said that being shuttered for even one month would cause TikTok to lose about a third of its US users and undermine its ability to attract advertisers and recruit content creators and employee talent.

The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in Washington DC on December 6 rejected the First Amendment arguments by the companies.

In their filing to the Supreme Court, TikTok and ByteDance said that "if Americans, duly informed of the alleged risks of 'covert' content manipulation, choose to continue viewing content on TikTok with their eyes wide open, the First Amendment entrusts them with making that choice, free from the government's censorship".

A US ban on TikTok would make the company far less valuable to ByteDance and its investors, and hurt businesses that depend on TikTok to drive their sales.

Trump, who unsuccessfully tried to ban TikTok during his first term in 2020, has reversed his stance and promised during the presidential race this year that he would try to save TikTok.

Trump said on December 16 that he has "a warm spot in my heart for TikTok" and that he would "take a look" at the matter.

Trump takes office on January 20, the day after the TikTok deadline under the law.

In its decision, the DC Circuit wrote, "The First Amendment exists to protect free speech in the United States. Here the government acted solely to protect that freedom from a foreign adversary nation and to limit that adversary's ability to gather data on people in the United States."

TikTok has denied it has or ever would share US user data, accusing US politicians in the lawsuit of advancing speculative concerns, and has characterised the ban as a "radical departure from this country's tradition of championing an open Internet".

The US law would bar providing certain services to TikTok and other foreign adversary-controlled apps including offering it through app stores such as Apple and Alphabet's Google, effectively preventing its continued US use unless ByteDance divests TikTok by the deadline.

An unimpeded ban could open the door to a future crackdown on other foreign-owned apps.

In 2020, Trump also tried to ban WeChat, owned by Chinese company Tencent, but was blocked by the courts.