On Monday, TikTok requested that the US Supreme Court temporarily halt a regulation that would compel its Chinese owner to either sell the well-known online video-sharing platform or shut it down within a month.
According to an NBC News story, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew met with US President-elect Donald Trump on the same day that the appeal was filed with the country’s highest court.
Trump claimed to have “a warm spot” for TikTok during a news conference on Monday, adding that his government will investigate the app and the possibility of a ban.
If TikTok’s owner, ByteDance, doesn’t sell the app by January 19, the law, which was signed by President Joe Biden in April, will ban the program from US app stores and web hosting services.
While it appeals a lower court decision that upheld the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, possibly to the Supreme Court, TikTok requested that the action be halted.
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.”
Just as Donald Trump is ready to take office on January 20, the possible ban could cause tensions between the US and China.
Amid worries that a ban on the app would primarily benefit Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook parent company, Meta, Trump has become an unusual supporter of TikTok.
Trump’s position is in line with conservative criticism of Meta for allegedly stifling right-wing content, which includes the former president’s own Facebook ban following the riot in the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, by his followers.
In contrast to his first term, when the Republican leader attempted to outlaw the app due to similar security concerns, Trump is now supporting TikTok.
According to the US government, TikTok gives Beijing permission to gather information and spy on users. Additionally, it believes that the video hosting service is being used to disseminate propaganda; however, China and ByteDance vehemently refute these allegations.
Earlier this month, a three-judge panel of the US appeals court unanimously affirmed the law’s assumption that TikTok’s divestment from Chinese ownership “is essential to protect our national security.”
