ByteDance, the Chinese company behind the short-form video app TikTok, has filed an emergency motion with the U.S. Court of Appeals to temporarily block a law requiring ByteDance to spin off TikTok by January 19 or face a ban in the United States. The request follows an appeals court decision to uphold the law requiring ByteDance to spin off TikTok by early next year or face a ban in just six weeks.
Lawyers for the companies have argued that the possibility that the Supreme Court will take up the case and overturn the decision is high enough to warrant a temporary pause to allow for additional deliberation. They have also noted that U.S. President-elect Joe Biden has pledged to prevent a potential ban, arguing that the delay would give the incoming administration time to determine its position.
TikTok warned that the court’s decision could disrupt services for tens of millions of TikTok users outside the United States. The app said hundreds of U.S. service providers would no longer be able to maintain, distribute, and update the platform starting January 19.
The Justice Department asked the appeals court to quickly dismiss TikTok’s request to maximize the time available to consider ByteDance and TikTok’s appeals.
The current ruling puts TikTok’s future in the hands of President Joe Biden, who will decide whether to grant a 90-day extension to the January 19 deadline to sell the app, and then in the hands of Donald Trump, who takes office on January 20. However, it is unclear whether ByteDance could demonstrate that it had made meaningful progress toward the divestiture needed to trigger the extension.
Trump’s incoming national security adviser Mike Waltz told Fox Business Network that Trump “wants to save TikTok. We absolutely need to give the American people access to this app, but we also need to protect our data.”
The case also upholds a law that gives the U.S. government broad powers to ban other foreign-owned apps that could pose data collection concerns about Americans. In 2020, Trump also tried to ban the Chinese app WeChat owned by Tencent, but was blocked by the courts.
The current situation raises critical questions about the rights of international app users, privacy protections, and government policies regarding the digital economy. How this pivotal case plays out for TikTok’s future in the U.S. is one to watch closely.