Tuesday, December 17, 2024
Year : 2, Issue: 16
AFP: TikTok asked the US Supreme Court on Monday to temporarily block a law that would force its Chinese owner to sell the popular online video-sharing platform or shut it down a month from now.
The appeal to the nation’s top court came on the same day that TikTok Chief Executive Shou Zi Chew met with US President-elect Donald Trump, according to an NBC News report.
At a press conference Monday, Trump said he has “a warm spot” for TikTok and that his administration would take a look at the app and the potential for a ban.
The law, signed by President Joe Biden in April, would block TikTok from US app stores and web hosting services unless its owner ByteDance divests from the app by January 19.
TikTok asked the nation’s top court to make a decision by January 6.
“Congress has enacted a massive and unprecedented speech restriction,” TikTok, which claims to have more than 170 million monthly US users, said in its filing with the Supreme Court.
Should the law come into force it would “shutter one of America’s most popular speech platforms the day before a presidential inauguration,” TikTok said.
“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 added. “Applicants — as well as countless small businesses who rely on the platform — also will suffer substantial and unrecoverable monetary and competitive harms.”
A three-judge US appeals court panel earlier this month unanimously upheld the law’s premise that TikTok divesting from Chinese ownership “is essential to protect our national security.”
