US Court Rejects TikTok's Request To Stop Temporary Ban

TikTok will be banned unless ByteDance releases ownership of the app before January 19. (photo: x @tiktoksupport)

JAKARTA The US appeals court on Friday December 13 rejected TikTok's emergency request to temporarily suspend a law that could ban the app. TikTok must now move quickly to apply to the US Supreme Court to stop or cancel the law before the January 19 deadline.

TikTok and its parent, ByteDance, previously filed an emergency motion on Monday 9 December to the US Court of Appeals in the District of Columbia, asking for additional time to bring their case to the Supreme Court.

The company warned that without court action, the law would "lock down TikTok" one of the most popular platforms in the United States which has more than 170 million domestic monthly active users."

However, the court rejected the request, stating that TikTok and ByteDance did not set an example of a previous case in which the court suspended the enactment of the law after the constitutional lawsuit was rejected.

A TikTok spokesman said after the ruling that the company plans to bring the case to the Supreme Court, "who has a historical record of protecting the right to free speech of the American people."

Under the law, TikTok will be banned unless ByteDance releases its holdings over the app before January 19. The law also gives the US government broad authority to ban other foreign-owned applications if deemed to threaten national security.

The US Department of Justice argued that "China's control over the TikTok app continues to be a threat to national security." TikTok denies the allegations, saying that user data and their content recommendation systems are stored on US cloud servers operated by Oracle, as well as content moderation decisions for US users. domestically.

This decision, unless canceled by the Supreme Court, would put the fate of TikTok in the hands of Democratic President Joe Biden. Biden has the option to extend the deadline by 90 days, before submitting the final decision to Republican elected President Donald Trump, who will serve on January 20.

Trump, who previously failed to ban TikTok during his 2020 term, has stated before the November election that he will not support the ban on the app.

Additionally, on Friday, the chairperson and top Democrat on the US House of Representatives committee on China asked Alphabet CEOs (Google contacts) and Apple to prepare to remove TikTok from their US app stores on January 19.