WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court said Wednesday it would hear TikTok’s appeal of a federal law that could ban the popular social media app next month.
The court took action just a day after TikTok appealed and will hear oral arguments on January 10 before making a decision on whether to suspend the law.
This is a bipartisan measure passed by Congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden, which would take effect on January 19, the day before President-elect Donald Trump takes office.
The law, called the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, would require TikTok’s Chinese owner ByteDance to sell the platform to a U.S. company or risk a ban.
A person holds a sign in support of TikTok at the U.S. Capitol on March 22, 2023.
TikTok has challenged the law, saying it violates the right to free speech under the First Amendment.
In the order announcing that it would hear the case, the court did not temporarily block the law.
“We believe the Court will find the TikTok ban unconstitutional so that the more than 170 million Americans on our platform can continue to exercise their right to free speech,” a company spokesperson said in a statement.
The quick decision to hear the case meant the court had not yet heard from the Justice Department about its legal arguments in support of the law.
By hearing the oral argument on January 10, the court may have given itself time to decide the case at an unusually fast pace before the law takes effect and before Trump takes office.
In a lower court, the Justice Department defended the law on national security grounds, focusing on concerns about the Chinese government’s potential to influence the company.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld the law, ruling that the government’s national security reasons, including concerns that the Chinese government could access data on U.S. users and potentially manipulate the app’s content, were legitimate.
Trump, after trying to ban TikTok during his first term, has changed his tune. On Monday, he said he had a “warm spot” in his heart for the platform and met with the company’s CEO.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
