TikTok’s only chance of avoiding a ban in the US appears to lie with incoming president Donald Trump.
The ByteDance-owned social media app will be removed from Apple and Android app stores on 19 January unless the Chinese firm sells it or the Supreme Court delays a ruling signed into law by outgoing president Joe Biden.
ByteDance has not made any public effort to find a buyer, and the Supreme Court is signalling that it will not intervene, meaning that TikTok is widely expected to be blocked from app stores within the week.
In comments made at the latest hearing, TikTok’s lawyers claimed that Trump could reverse the ban, however he does not come into power until the day after the legislation is due to come into effect.
“We might be in a different world,” said Noel Francisco, representing TikTok and ByteDance. “That’s one of the reasons why I think it makes perfect sense to issue a preliminary injunction here and simply buy everybody a little breathing space.”
In December, Trump urged the Supreme Court to delay the ban in order to give his incoming administration “the opportunity to pursue a political resolution of the question at issue in the case”.
According to US law, the 19 January deadline can only be extended if progress has been made towards an act of divesture, however neither ByteDance nor TikTok have signalled that it is seeking a sale of the viral video app.
The nationwide ban would prevent anyone from downloading or updating TikTok on their devices, however it would not remove the app from the 170 million existing users in the US. Without updates, the app will eventually stop working or become unsafe to use due to a lack of cyber security protections.
TikTok has already been banned in several countries, including India, Afghanistan and most recently Albania.
The looming US ban centres on a bipartisan law called the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, which aims to prevent other countries from interfering with national security.
Lawmakers have raised concerns about how user data is collected, as well as TikTok’s potential influence on what topics appear in people’s feeds through its algorithm.
The US Justice Department claims that a sale in necessary because “continued Chinese control of the TikTok application poses a continuing threat to national security”.
TikTok has denied these claims, arguing that a ban of the app is unconstitutional as it infringes on free speech rights enshrined by the First Ammendment.
