TikTok on Monday asked a federal appeals court to block the Biden administration from enforcing a law to that effect could lead to a ban on the popular platform until the Supreme Court reviews its challenge to the statue.
The legal submission was made after a three-judge panel of the same court sided with the government last week and ruled that the law, which requires TikTok to divest its China-based parent company or face a ban next month, was constitutional.
If the law is not overturned, both TikTok and its parent company ByteDance, which is also a plaintiff in the case, have claimed that the popular app will be shut down on January 19, 2025. TikTok has more than 170 million American users.
“Before that happens, the Supreme Court should have the opportunity, as the sole court with jurisdiction over this matter, to decide whether this exceptionally important case should be reviewed,” attorneys for the two companies wrote in the legal filing Monday.
It is not clear whether the Supreme Court will hear the case.
President-elect Donald Trump, who tried to ban TikTok the last time he was in the White House, has said he now against such action.
In their legal filing, the two companies pointed to the political reality, saying that an injunction would provide a “modest delay” that would “give the incoming administration time to determine its position – which would reflect both the looming harm and the need for a Supreme Court could question. Assessment by the court.”