TikTok asks US Supreme Court to block looming ban

WASHINGTON - TikTok on Monday asked the US Supreme Court to block a law that would ban the video-sharing app if ByteDance, its Chinese parent company, doesn't sell it to a non-Chinese buyer by Jan 19.

"The Act will shutter one of America's most popular speech platforms the day before a presidential inauguration," TikTok's lawyers wrote in the court filing.

"This, in turn, will silence the speech of Applicants and the many Americans who use the platform to communicate about politics, commerce, arts, and other matters of public concern," it said.

TikTok's request came 10 days after the US Court of Appeals in Washington, DC dismissed TikTok's claim that the ban is unconstitutional and violates the First Amendment rights of the 170 million US users.

In April, US President Joe Biden enacted the law that gives ByteDance only 270 days to sell TikTok, citing unfounded national security concerns. If the company fails to comply, the law will require app store operators such as Apple and Google to remove TikTok from their platforms.

In May, TikTok sued the US government to block the potential ban that has drawn widespread criticism.

Congressman Jim McGovern from Massachusetts is among those who voted no on the TikTok ban in March. In a post on X earlier this year, he listed four reasons: the bill was rushed; there are major free speech issues; it would hurt small businesses; the United States should be doing way more to protect data privacy and combat misinformation online. "Singling out one app isn't the answer," he said.

Echoing his views, Congressman Mark Pocan from Wisconsin said on X that "we need to address data privacy across all social networks, including American companies like Meta and X, through meaningful regulation that protects freedom of expression. Not just single out one platform."

Gary Clyde Hufbauer, a nonresident senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, wrote in an article in September that as with Huawei, "no evidence was disclosed" by US authorities that TikTok accounts are subject to actual surveillance or that the platform serves as a channel for "Chinese propaganda".