TIKTOK EYES SUPREME COURT AS FORCED SALE LOOMS

TikTok was back in court today (12/9) in an attempt to forestall enforcement of a law requiring its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to sell the app to a non-Chinese owner in the coming weeks or shut it down.

The companies told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia that they'd take the matter all the way to the Supreme Court if necessary and asked for a preliminary decision by Dec. 16.

The same court on 12/6 denied TikTok's motion to overturn the law, which was signed in April. The company has claimed a sale would likely be blocked by the Chinese government and that banning it would violate the First Amendment right to free speech.

“A modest delay in enforcing the act will simply create breathing room for the Supreme Court to conduct an orderly review and for the incoming administration to evaluate this matter—before one of this country’s most important speech platforms is shuttered,” TikTok said.

Shutting the app down starting 1/19, even for a limited period, would “deprive TikTok’s base of 170m monthly users and creators of access to one of the country’s most popular speech platforms, destroy TikTok’s ability to attract advertisers and cripple petitioners’ ability to recruit and retain talent," it added.

President-elect Donald Trump has previously signaled a willingness to allow ByteDance to maintain its control of the platform.