WASHINGTON – The Justice Department has asked a US appeals court to reject an emergency bid by TikTok to temporarily block a law that would require its Chinese parent company ByteDance to divest the short-video app by January 19 or face a ban.
TikTok and ByteDance had filed the emergency motion on Monday, warning that without court action, the law would “shut down TikTok – one of the nation’s most popular speech platforms – for its more than 170 million domestic monthly users.”
The Justice Department argued that the court should not delay the law’s effective date, saying that “continued Chinese control of the TikTok application poses a continuing threat to national security.”
If the ban takes effect on January 19, the DOJ said it would not directly prohibit the continued use of TikTok by users who had downloaded the app, but conceded that the effect of the prohibitions on providing support would eventually render the application unworkable.
A three-judge panel of the appeals court had previously upheld the law requiring ByteDance to divest TikTok in the United States, face a ban in just six weeks. The companies have noted that President-elect Joe Biden has vowed to prevent a ban, arguing the delay would give the incoming administration time to determine its position.
The decision puts TikTok’s fate in the hands of President Biden and President-elect Trump, who had previously tried to ban TikTok during his first term in 2020. Trump had said he would not allow the ban on TikTok before the November presidential election.
