TikTok has filed an emergency motion for an injunction to stop the app’s impending US ban on Jan. 19.
On Friday, Dec. 6, the US Appeals Court rejected TikTok’s appeal against a law that requires the app to sell its assets to a US buyer by Jan. 19, 2025, or face a nationwide ban. In response, on Dec. 9, representatives for TikTok confirmed that the company plans to take its appeal to the Supreme Court.
In turn, the company is asking for this law and subsequently the ban to be temporarily blocked. This is so that the case can go to the Supreme Court.
“TikTok is, at its core, its 170 million American users,” the company wrote in a statement. “Estimates show that small businesses on TikTok would lose more than $1 billion in revenue and creators would suffer almost $300 million in lost earnings in just one month unless the TikTok Ban is halted. In 2023 alone, the advertising, marketing, and organic reach on TikTok contributed $24.2 billion, and TikTok’s own operations contributed an additional $8.5 billion to the U.S. GDP.”
According to the BBC, the Department of Justice has called for this request to be dismissed, claiming that the arguments it is based on have already been “definitively rejected.”
What is the legislation that might ban TikTok?
Earlier in 2024, the US Government passed a law demanding that TikTok sever ties with parent company ByteDance by Jan. 19, 2025, or face a ban.
This law passed because ByteDance is a China-based company, which prompted US government’s concerns over the country having access to US users’ data.
In response to the government’s legal ultimatum, TikTok filed a lawsuit of its own, arguing that the potential ban on TikTok is unconstitutional. Moreover, representatives of TikTok argued that it would adversely impact the free speech of TikTok’s 170 million users.
But this argument didn’t wash in the federal appeals court. According to the BBC, the court said that the US law against TikTok was “carefully crafted to deal only with control by a foreign adversary, and it was part of a broader effort to counter a well-substantiated national security threat posed by the PRC (People’s Republic of China).”
Suddenly, a TikTok ban seems very likely. We’re entering an unprecedented era for creators.
