TikTok, facing a ban in the U.S. after losing a legal battle on Friday, wants to stay long enough for the Supreme Court to consider its fate.
The app asked a federal appeals court on Monday to bar the Biden administration from enforcing a law that could lead to a ban until the Supreme Court reviews its challenge to the statute, The Associated Press reported. The federal appeals court has declared the statute constitutional.
The law requires TikTok’s China-based parent company ByteDance to divest its stakes in the social media company or face a ban. TikTok has said it will shut down by Jan. 19 if the law is not declared unconstitutional.
That means more than 7 million Americans who use TikTok to advertise and sell products stand to lose up to $1.3 billion in revenue per month, according to the app. Thirty-nine percent of those users say access to TikTok is “critical” to their business, TikTok’s president of global business solutions Blake Chandlee said in a court filing.
Chandlee said the businesses contributed $24.2 billion to the U.S. gross domestic product in 2023, with another $8.5 billion added by TikTok’s own operations.
It's not clear whether the Supreme Court would take the case. Attorneys from the Department of Justice are urging the federal appeals court to reject the app's request, according to ABC News, claiming “critical national-security interests.”
President-elect Donald Trump, who tried to ban TikTok during his first term, has more recently promised to "save TikTok."
