TikTok on Monday requested an emergency suspension of a law forbid popular social networking app next month.
The temporary lifting of the measure would give the Supreme Court time to determine whether to review the law, the company said. court filing.
The filler comes from TikTok — which has more than 170 million US users — and days. lost an appeal against the measure in a federal appeals court.
A break in the law will give the Supreme Court time to decide “whether to review this exceptional case,” TikTok said in a court filing on Monday.
Justice Department lawyers on Monday asked a federal court to deny TikTok a temporary injunction. The DOJ said it plans to file a formal motion to oppose TikTok’s request on Wednesday, but the government agency asked the judge to dismiss TikTok’s request.
“The Court recognizes the relevant facts and law and has definitively rejected petitioners’ constitutional claims in a thorough decision that recognizes the critical national security interests underlying the Act,” DOJ attorneys said.
The law would impose a ban on TikTok on January 19, 2025, unless the company finds another owner.
The ban will go into effect a day before President-elect Donald Trump takes office, he said vice versa possible ban
The legal pause would also allow the Trump administration to decide its approach to TikTok, the company’s legal filing said.
TikTok challenged the law on First Amendment grounds, arguing that a potential ban would deny American users access to a popular venue for public expression. The company’s lawyers also argued that the app poses a national security risk.
In Friday’s ruling, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit rejected TikTok’s bid to overturn the law.
The federal court found merit in security concerns about data collection or content manipulation by the Chinese government.
Each of those two concerns “constitutes an independent national security interest,” the judge’s opinion said. The court cited previous cases in which the Chinese government sought data, noting that the government used its ties to Chinese companies.
TikTok content creators gather outside the Capitol to voice their opposition to a potential ban on the app, highlighting the platform’s impact on their livelihoods and communities, in Washington, DC on March 22, 2023.
Nathan Posner/Getty Images
The China-based app has come under increasing scrutiny from government officials over fears that user data could end up in the hands of the Chinese government and that the app could be used as a weapon by China to spread disinformation. TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, has denied these claims.
There is little evidence that TikTok has shared US user data with the Chinese government or that the Chinese government has asked for the app, according to cybersecurity experts. previously told ABC News
In a statement on Monday, TikTok asked the Supreme Court to intervene on its behalf.
“The Supreme Court has a historic record of protecting Americans’ right to free speech, and we hope they will do so in this important constitutional matter,” the company said. “Unfortunately, the TikTok ban was created and promoted based on misinformation, errors, and hypotheticals, resulting in total censorship of the American people.”
ABC News’ Steven Portnoy contributed to this report.
