TikTok and ByteDance on Monday filed the emergency motion with the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia pending a review by the US Supreme Court. They warned that without court action the law will “shut down TikTok – one of the nation’s most popular speech platforms – for its more than 170 million domestic monthly users”.
The Justice Department said the court should not delay the law’s effective date arguing “continued Chinese control of the TikTok application poses a continuing threat to national security”.
TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
DOJ said Wednesday if the ban takes effect on January 19 it would “not directly prohibit the continued use of TikTok” by users who had downloaded TikTok but it conceded that the effect of the prohibitions on providing support “will eventually be to render the application unworkable”.
On Friday, a three-judge panel of the appeal court upheld the law requiring ByteDance to soon divest TikTok in the US or face a ban in just six weeks.
