the supreme court He agreed Wednesday to hear arguments that the law would effectively prohibit Tik Tok If the parent company does not sell popularity Social media application Violates the freedom of expression protection in the US Constitution.
The Supreme Court has scheduled oral arguments in the case for January 10. That is, nine days before the law targeting the application used by an estimated 170 million Americans goes into effect.
The law requires TikTok's Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to sell or enforce the app Google, appleAnd other platforms to stop supporting the app in the United States.
Congress passed the law, the Foreign Controlled Apps Act, over concerns that TikTok's Chinese ownership poses a national security risk.
The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld the law on December 6, ruling that the Justice Department “presented compelling evidence demonstrating that the Divestment Act is narrowly designed to protect national security.”
The Supreme Court said on Wednesday that it would hear challenges to the law filed jointly by TikTok and ByteDance, as well as a group of… TikTok users. These users include a rancher who produces short videos about agricultural issues, a woman who makes videos about parenting and mental health, and another woman who advocates for survivors of sexual assault.
TikTok says that if the app is banned, small US businesses that use TikTok for marketing would lose more than $1 billion in revenue in the month following the ban, and people who create videos using the app would lose nearly $300 million in revenue.
The Supreme Court's announcement on Wednesday that it would receive TikTok's appeal came two days after the company filed a petition seeking an injunction against the law that will take effect next month.
In that motion, TikTok said: “Congress’s unprecedented attempt to discriminate and prevent Applicants from operating one of this nation’s most important platforms for expression presents serious constitutional problems that this Court will likely not allow to stand.”
The Supreme Court ordered the appeal to be granted, and lawyers for TikTok and BytenDance, for the app's users and the Justice Department, were ordered to brief and discuss the issue of whether the law applied to TikTok “violates the First Amendment.”
TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday from CNBC.
Lawyer for Senator Mitch McConnell Kentucky, who is the leader of the Senate Republican Caucus, in Deposit The Supreme Court on Wednesday denied TikTok's request for an emergency injunction against the law.
“TikTok clearly hopes that” the incoming administration of the president-elect, McConnell’s filing said Donald Trump “She will be more sympathetic to her plight than the current administration” of the president Joe Biden.
“In other words, delay is the goal” of the injunction request, McConnell's attorney Michael Fragoso said.
Trump met with TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew at Trump's Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, on Monday, the same day the company asked the Supreme Court to take up its case.
“We're going to take a look at TikTok,” Trump told reporters earlier that day, when asked about a potential ban.
“You know, I have a warm spot in my heart for TikTok,” Trump said, noting that the app boosted support for him from young voters during the election in November.
Jeff Yass, a major Trump backer, is co-founder and managing director of Susquehanna International Group, a major investor in ByteDance.
In his filing on Wednesday, McConnell's lawyer Fragoso called TikTok's First Amendment arguments baseless and unsound.
“While forced dispossession may cause them irreparable harm, any delay resulting from an injunction would be contrary to the public interest,” Fragoso wrote.
“This is a standard litigation charade at the end of one administration, with the petitioner hoping the next administration will provide a stay,” the attorney wrote. “This court should not accept that it comes from foreign adversaries any more than it does from hardened criminals.”
– CNBC Laura Kolodny Contribute to this article.
