Once again, TikTok is turning to the Supreme Court. Things aren’t easy for TikTok right now. Despite claiming that the app’s ban would violate the First Amendment, nobody seems to be listening.
The federal courts of appeal rejected TikTok not once, but twice. Firstly, they rejected TikTok’s overall argument in court, and then, the same judges rejected the app’s bid to extend the Jan. 19 deadline to give the Supreme Court a chance to look at the case.
TikTok Goes to the Supreme Court
At this point, TikTok is getting pretty desperate: so much so that, as of Dec. 16, they’ve gone running back to the Supreme Court. The reason? To see if the Justices will provide the app with an extension on the current “sell or ban” deadline.
In a statement to NBC News, TikTok spokesperson Michael Hughes said: “Today, TikTok is asking the court to do what it has traditionally done in free speech cases: apply the most rigorous scrutiny to speech bans and conclude that it violates the First Amendment.”
As of Dec. 18, the Supreme Court confirmed that it will hear arguments over how constitutional the “ban or sell” TikTok law is on Jan. 10, 2025, nine days before the ban and ten days before Donald Trump’s second inauguration.
TikTok CEO Visits Donald Trump
In another surprising twist, the word on the grapevine is that TikTok’s CEO, Shou Chew, has visited Trump in Mar-a-Lago.
According to CNN, this is the first time Chew has met with Trump following his November victory.
Reportedly, Chew has been trying to meet with Trump for quite some time, following in the footsteps of fellow platform owners Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk.
While the details of the meeting haven’t been divulged, it comes after Trump declared during a press release that he has a “soft spot” for TikTok. But it remains to be seen whether this “soft spot” will lead to him interfering with the law.
