US court rejects TikTok request to temporarily halt pending US ban

Below the law, TikTok can be banned unless ByteDance divests it by Jan. 19. The law additionally provides the US government sweeping powers to ban other international-owned apps that can well well raise concerns about sequence of Americans’ data

Reuters

14 December, 2024, 07:40 am

Final modified: 14 December, 2024, 07:43 am

A US appeals court on Friday rejected an emergency train by TikTok to temporarily block a law that can well well require its Chinese parent firm ByteDance to divest of the short-video app by Jan. 19 or face a ban on the app.

TikTok and ByteDance on Monday filed the emergency motion with the US Court docket of Appeals for the District of Columbia, soliciting for more time to assemble their case to the US Supreme Court docket. Friday’s ruling skill that TikTok now must mercurial pass to the Supreme Court docket in an strive to cease the pending ban.

The agencies had warned that with out court motion, the law will “shut down TikTok — one in every of the nation’s most widespread speech platforms — for its bigger than 170 million domestic month-to-month customers.”

“The petitioners agree and not utilizing a longer identified any case by which a court, after rejecting a constitutional scenario to an Act of Congress, has enjoined the Act from going into develop while overview is sought within the Supreme Court docket,” Friday’s court mutter stated.

TikTok didn’t straight answer to a question for comment.

Below the law, TikTok can be banned unless ByteDance divests it by Jan. 19. The law additionally provides the US government sweeping powers to ban other international-owned apps that can well well raise concerns about sequence of Americans’ data.

The US Justice Division argues “persisted Chinese administration of the TikTok application poses a unbroken threat to nationwide safety.”

TikTok says the Justice Division has misstated the social media app’s ties to China, arguing its teach suggestion engine and user data are stored within the US on cloud servers operated by Oracle while teach moderation choices that affect US customers are made within the US

The dedication – unless the Supreme Court docket reverses it – places TikTok’s fate first within the hands of Democratic President Joe Biden on whether to grant a 90-day extension of the Jan. 19 closing date to power a sale after which of Republican President-elect Donald Trump, who takes predicament of business on Jan. 20.

Trump, who unsuccessfully tried to ban TikTok all thru his first duration of time in 2020, stated sooner than the November presidential election he wouldn’t allow the ban on TikTok.