The Supreme Court said Wednesday that it will take up a challenge to a new law that could ban the popular social media app TikTok in the US.
The move, detailed in a one-page order, comes two days after TikTok filed a last-ditch appeal over the looming ban, and now both the Justice Department and lawyers for TikTok will argue whether the ban passed by Congress violates the First Amendment, the Supreme Court said in the order.
Arguments will be heard by the high court on Jan. 10, just days before the ban would take effect on Jan. 19, one day before President-elect Donald Trump takes office.
The potential ban is a result of a bipartisan measure passed by Congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden called the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act. The law requires TikTok’s China-based parent company ByteDance to sell the app to an American company or be banned.
TikTok, which has claimed to be one of the most important free speech platforms in the US, has challenged the law, saying it violates its rights under the First Amendment.
“Congress’s unprecedented attempt to single out applicants and bar them from operating one of the most significant speech platforms in this Nation presents grave constitutional problems that this Court likely will not allow to stand,” lawyers for TikTok wrote in their appeal to the Supreme Court.
Earlier this month, the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in Washington rejected arguments by the companies and some TikTok users that the law violates their free speech rights under the Constitution’s First Amendment, much to the dismay and shock of free speech advocates, including the ACLU.
“The Constitution imposes an extraordinarily high bar on this kind of mass censorship,” Patrick Toomey, deputy director of ACLU’s National Security Project, said in a statement Tuesday. “The Supreme Court should take up this important case and protect the rights of millions of Americans to freely express themselves and engage with others around the world.”
The DC Circuit on Friday denied an emergency request by TikTok and ByteDance to temporarily halt the law.
Without an injunction, the ban would make TikTok much less valuable to ByteDance and its investors and hurt businesses that depend on the app to drive their sales.
Meanwhile, Trump, who unsuccessfully attempted to ban TikTok during his first term in 2020, has completely changed his stance, instead promising to try and save the app after taking office on Jan. 20 — one day after its potential ban.
