By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -China-based ByteDance and its short-video app TikTok on Monday asked an appeals court to temporarily block a law that would require that parent company ByteDance divest TikTok by Jan. 19 or face a ban, pending a review by the U.S. Supreme Court.
The companies filed the emergency motion with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, warning that without the order the law will take effect and will "shut down TikTok—one of the nation’s most popular speech platforms—for its more than 170 million domestic monthly users on the eve of a presidential inauguration."
Without the injunction, TikTok could be banned in the U.S. in six weeks, making the company far less valuable to ByteDance and its investors, and slamming the businesses that depend on TikTok to drive their sales.
On Friday, a three-judge panel of the appeals court upheld the law requiring ByteDance to divest TikTok in the United States by early next year or face a ban in just six weeks.
Lawyers for the companies said the prospect the Supreme Court will take the case "and reverse is sufficiently high to warrant the temporary pause needed to create time for further deliberation."
The companies also noted President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to prevent a ban, arguing the delay "will give the incoming administration time to determine its position -- which could moot both the impending harms and the need for Supreme Court review."
The Justice Department said the appeals court should quickly deny the request "to maximize the time available for the Supreme Court’s consideration" of petitions from ByteDance and TikTok.
TikTok asked the appeals court to decide on the request by Dec. 16.
The decision -- unless the Supreme Court reverses it -- puts TikTok's fate in the hands of first President Joe Biden on whether to grant a 90-day extension of the Jan. 19 deadline to force a sale and then of Trump, who takes office on Jan. 20. But it is not clear whether ByteDance could meet the heavy burden to show it had made significant progress toward a divestiture needed to trigger the extension.
Trump, who unsuccessfully tried to ban TikTok during his first term in 2020, said before the November presidential election he would not allow the ban on TikTok.
Trump's incoming national security adviser Mike Waltz told Fox Business Network Friday that Trump "wants to save TikTok. We absolutely need to allow the American people to have access to that app but we have to protect our data as well."
The decision upholds the law that gives the U.S. government sweeping powers to ban other foreign-owned apps that could raise concerns about collection of Americans' data. In 2020, Trump also tried to ban Tencent-owned WeChat, but was blocked by the courts.
TikTok also warned on Monday the court ruling would interrupt "services for tens of millions of TikTok users outside the United States," The app said hundreds of U.S. service providers that enable maintenance, distribution and updating would not be able to provide support for the TikTok platform starting Jan. 19.