WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Wednesday stated it will take up TikTok’s enchantment difficult a federal legislation that would ban the favored social media app by subsequent month.
The court docket acted only a day after TikTok filed its enchantment and can hear oral arguments on Jan. 10 earlier than issuing a call on whether or not to place the legislation on maintain.
At challenge is a bipartisan measure handed by Congress and signed into legislation by President Joe Biden that may go into impact on Jan. 19, the day earlier than President-elect Donald Trump takes workplace.
The legislation, referred to as the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, would require TikTok’s Chinese proprietor, ByteDance, to promote the platform to an American firm or face a ban.
TikTok has challenged the legislation, saying it violates its free speech rights beneath the First Amendment.
In the order saying it will take up the case, the court docket didn’t provisionally block the legislation.
“We imagine the Court will discover the TikTok ban unconstitutional so the over 170 million Americans on our platform can proceed to train their free speech rights,” an organization spokesman stated in an announcement.
The fast determination to take up the case meant the court docket has not but heard from the Justice Department on its authorized arguments in assist of the legislation.
By listening to the argument on Jan. 10, the court docket has doubtlessly given itself time to resolve the case at an unusually quick tempo earlier than the legislation is because of go in impact and earlier than Trump takes workplace.
In a decrease court docket, the Justice Department has defended the legislation on nationwide safety grounds, specializing in considerations concerning the Chinese authorities’s potential to affect the corporate.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld the legislation, discovering that the federal government’s nationwide safety justifications, together with considerations that the Chinese authorities might entry information about American customers and doubtlessly manipulate content material on the app, had been official.
Trump, after making an attempt to ban TikTok in his first time period, has modified his tune. On Monday he stated he had “heat spot” in his coronary heart for the platform and met with the corporate’s CEO.