TikTok asks to pause law requiring it to divest ahead of Supreme Court review

The Chinese-owned social media platform TikTok on Monday asked a federal appeals court to pause a law it recently upheld that would require the company divest by Jan. 19 or else be banned in the U.S.

In an emergency petition to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, the popular video-sharing site TikTok asked the court to pause the law to allow the Supreme Court to review the dispute and to see how the law may be implemented or impacted by President-elect Donald Trump after he takes office on Jan. 20.

“Today, we filed an emergency motion for an injunction to stop the TikTok Ban from taking effect on January 19, 2025 until our appeal of the decision by the Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit is heard by the US Supreme Court,” said Michael Hughes, a TikTok spokesperson.

TikTok has 170 million U.S. users, the company noted.

“Estimates show that small businesses on TikTok would lose more than $1 billion in revenue and creators would suffer almost $300 million in lost earnings in just one month unless the TikTok Ban is halted. In 2023 alone, the advertising, marketing, and organic reach on TikTok contributed $24.2 billion, and TikTok’s own operations contributed an additional $8.5 billion to the U.S. GDP,” Mr. Hughes added.

On Friday, a three-judge panel unanimously upheld the law, rejecting TikTok’s First Amendment concerns.

“The parts of the [Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act] that are properly before this court do not contravene the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, nor do they violate the Fifth Amendment guarantee of equal protection of the laws,” stated the opinion, authored by Judge Douglas Ginsburg, a Reagan appointee.

The ban, approved by Congress and signed by President Biden in April, will go into effect if ByteDance, the owner of TikTok, hasn’t divested itself of the app.

The legislation won bipartisan support in Congress from lawmakers concerned that TikTok poses a national security threat by collecting users’ data. The concern is that data collected by the company could be used by China’s communist government.

The Justice Department has said TikTok received direction about content on its platform from the Chinese government, The Associated Press reported.

TikTok and ByteDance sued the federal government in May.

With Mr. Trump becoming president next month, the fate of the law is unclear.

Mr. Trump’s position on TikTok has changed over time. He initially recognized it as a national security threat but has softened on the platform and has an account. He also posted about it on Truth Social in September, saying he would “save TikTok in America.”