TikTok asks appeals court to block potential ban until high court weighs in

TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, filed an emergency request for a preliminary injunction Monday. It asked the federal appeals court to stop the potential U.S. ban of the short-form video platform from taking effect until the Supreme Court reviews the case. President Joe Biden signed legislation in April that would ban the app from the United States within a year unless TikTok cuts ties with its China-based parent company. Legislators initially passed the measure based on security and censorship concerns the app posed. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit rejected an appeal from ByteDance last week to overturn the law, giving the app less than two months to sell before it’s blocked for U.S. users.

ByteDance argued that the law was unconstitutional and illegally singled out TikTok for legislative punishment, violating equal protection and due process principles, according to the company’s lawsuit. ByteDance also alleged the law violated Fifth Amendment protections against uncompensated property seizure. However, Friday’s ruling reaffirmed a lower court determination that the law did not violate the Constitution. The law aimed to protect the American right to free speech from a foreign adversary, according to the opinion penned by Judge Douglas Ginsburg. The measure is also specifically tailored to protect national security, not hamper free speech, the opinion added.

The Chinese government weaponizes TikTok to undermine national security by collecting information on millions of Americans and manipulating content presented to American users, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said after the appeals court’s decision last week. This law is about breaking TikTok’s ties with the Beijing regime and keeping Americans safe, not silencing users online, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said. ByteDance appealed Friday’s ruling to the Supreme Court, but it’s unclear whether the high court will hear the case.

What is ByteDance’s argument for the injunction? Before over 170 million TikTok users are barred from the app, the Supreme Court should have a chance to weigh in on the issue, the company argued in its Monday filing. Shutting down TikTok in the United States for even a month would cause unrecoverable economic damage, the petition alleged. Tiktok would lose about a third of its daily U.S. users with even more losses from advertisers and commercial partnerships, attorneys argued. The appeal further alleged that the company would suffer permanent losses in talent recruitment and retention during a shutdown of any length. The emergency petition asked the appeals court to decide on the injunction by Dec. 16.

Dig deeper: Read my report on the appeals court’s ruling last week for more background on the case.