TikTok turns to US Supreme Court in last-ditch bid to avert ban

David Shepardson - Reuters - 16/12
TikTok made a last-ditch effort on Monday to continue operating in the United States, asking the Supreme Court to temporarily block a law intended to force ByteDance, its China-based parent company, to divest the short-video app by Jan. 19 or face a ban.
  • Justice Department calls TikTok threat to US security
  • Federal appeals court upheld ban on Dec. 6
  • Trump says he has a "warm spot in my heart" for TikTok
WASHINGTON, Dec 16 (Reuters) - TikTok made a last-ditch effort on Monday to continue operating in the United States, asking the Supreme Court to temporarily block a law intended to force ByteDance, its China-based parent company, to divest the short-video app by Jan. 19 or face a ban.
TikTok and ByteDance filed an emergency request to the justices for an injunction to halt the looming ban on the social media app used by about 170 million Americans while they appeal a lower court's ruling that upheld the law. A group of U.S. users of the app filed a similar request on Monday as well.
Congress passed the law in April. The Justice Department has 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 American users, from locations to private messages, and its ability to secretly manipulate content that Americans view on the app.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in Washington on Dec. 6 rejected TikTok's arguments that the law violates free speech protections under the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment.
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, ...
[Short citation of 8% of the original article]