TikTok on Monday asked the Supreme
Court to issue an emergency order halting a law that will result in a ban on the app unless it separates from China-based parent company ByteDance.
“The Act will shutter one of
America’s most popular speech platforms the day before a presidential inauguration,” the company writes in a petition addressed to Chief Justice John Roberts.
“This, in turn, will silence the speech of
applicants and the many Americans who use the platform to communicate about politics, commerce, arts, and other matters of public concern,” TikTok adds.
The company is seeking a stay of
the Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act (H.R. 7521), which will prohibit app stores and websites from distributing TikTok unless it's divested by ByteDance. Lawmakers who passed the
bill expressed concerns that the Chinese government may be able to access data about TikTok's users, and use the app to influence public opinion.
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The law gives ByteDance a January 19 deadline
to find a buyer for TikTok, but provides that President Joe Biden can extend that period for up to three months. Biden hasn't yet indicated whether he will do so.
TikTok and a group of content
creators previously asked the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals to invalidate the law, arguing that shuttering a communications platform violates the First Amendment.
That court sided against
TikTok, ruling on December 6 that the law's curbs on speech are justified by national security concerns.
TikTok argues in its petition to Roberts that the circuit court's opinion is
“manifestly erroneous.”
“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,” the company argues.
TikTok adds that it “will suffer massive irreparable
injury” if the app -- used by an estimated 170 million Americans each month -- is forced to shut down on January 19.
A company spokesman separately stated that even a one month ban on
TikTok would cost the company more than $1 billion in revenue, and cost creators almost $300 million in earnings.
TikTok has requested that Roberts rule on the request for a stay by January
6.