Federal appeals court denies TikTok’s attempt to delay ban
A federal appeals court on Friday denied TikTok’s bid to delay a law from taking effect that could result in the popular social media app being banned in the United States unless its Chinese owner sells it to an American company by next month.
Last week, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit unanimously voted to uphold the law after TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, petitioned to overturn it.
ByteDance said it would appeal to the Supreme Court and filed an emergency motion to temporarily block the law from taking effect, pending the outcome of its appeal. But the appeals court denied its request on Friday in an unsigned order that called such a pause “unwarranted.”
ByteDance has not yet filed its appeal to the Supreme Court. It’s unclear if justices will agree to take up the case or if they will issue a decision before the law takes effect on Jan. 19.
As my colleague Clarissa-Jan Lim wrote last week:
As it stands, the law is set to go into effect one day before President-elect Donald Trump is inaugurated. That deadline could be extended by 90 days if there is progress toward a sale.
Trump, whose executive order to ban TikTok in 2020 was quickly rescinded by [President Joe] Biden, has since indicated that he opposes a ban on the app. But it’s unclear what exactly he intends to do about the impending ban: When asked by The New York Times about Trump’s plans for the app, a spokesperson for his transition team, Karoline Leavitt, said Trump “will deliver” on his campaign promises.
