TikTok is seeking an urgent ruling from the US Supreme Court to prevent the impending ban

TikTok on Monday asked the US Supreme Court to act urgently to block a federal law that would have banned the popular platform in the US unless its China-based parent company, ByteDance, agreed to sell it.

Lawyers for the company and ByteDance urged the justices to start working before the law’s January 19 deadline. A similar claim was made by content creators who rely on the platform for revenue and TikTok’s more than 170 million users in the US.

“A modest delay in implementing the law will create breathing room for this Court to conduct an orderly review and for the new Administration to evaluate this matter – before this vital channel for Americans to communicate with their fellow citizens and the world is closed,” the lawyers wrote. companies reported to the Supreme Court.

US President-elect Donald Trump, who once supported the ban but later promised to “save TikTok” during the election campaign, said his administration would look into the situation.

“As you know, I have a warm place in my heart for TikTok,” Trump said at a press conference at the Mar-a-Lago club in Florida. His campaign saw the platform as a way to reach younger, less politically engaged voters.

Trump met with TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew at Mar-a-Lago on Monday, according to two people familiar with the president-elect’s plans who were not authorized to speak about them and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

The shutdown, which lasts just a month, will cost TikTok significant ad revenue and about a third of its daily users in the US, the companies said.

The case could be of interest to the court because it challenges free speech rights to the government’s stated goals of protecting national security, while also raising new issues with social media platforms.

The appeal first goes to Chief Justice John Roberts, who oversees emergency appeals from courts in the nation’s capital. He will appeal to almost all nine justices.

The ban will come into effect on January 19

On Friday, a panel of federal judges at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit denied an emergency appeal to block the law, a procedural ruling that would have allowed the case to go to the Supreme Court.

The same panel had previously unanimously upheld a First Amendment challenge to the law, which it argued violated free speech rights.

If not frozen by a court order, the law will go into effect on January 19, subjecting app stores and web hosting services that offer TikTok to potential fines.

It is the responsibility of the Department of Justice to enforce the law, investigate possible violations and impose sanctions. But lawyers for TikTok and ByteDance have argued that Trump’s Justice Department could halt enforcement of the law or seek to mitigate the law’s most severe consequences. Trump takes office a day after the law goes into effect.

The Supreme Court can temporarily suspend the law so the justices can more fully consider First Amendment and other issues. They can also quickly schedule arguments and try to reach a decision by January 19.

On the other hand, the high court could reject an emergency appeal, which would allow the law to take effect as intended.

With this latest perspective in mind, the companies’ lawyers asked for a decision on the emergency requests by January 6, 2025, because they “need time to complete the complex task of connecting with service providers” TikTok platform only in the United States.

The case moved relatively quickly through the courts after a bipartisan majority in Congress approved the law and President Joe Biden signed it into law in April.