Supreme Court to hear TikTok ban challenge nine days before it takes effect
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Law being questioned would force TikTok to sell to a U.S.-based company or lose access to U.S. app stores and web-hosting services. The U.S. Supreme Court has said it would hear arguments in TikTok’s challenge to a law that threatens to ban the app from millions of users in the United States.
![[TikTok chief executive Shou Zi Chew faced interrogative questioning from lawmakers during his congressional hearing last year]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2023/03/23/19/SEI149423658.jpg)
TikTok is one of the most popular social media apps in the U.S., with more than 150 million users. ByteDance had nine months to sell off TikTok, one of the most popular social media apps, or lose access to U.S. app stores and web-hosting services on January 19.
For months, TikTok has been trying to fight the law from taking effect, arguing it will “shutter one of America’s most popular speech platforms” and thus create a chilling effect. But they have been unable to convince courts thus far. Earlier this month, a federal appeals court upheld the law saying the Chinese government’s ability to collect Americans’ data served as a “compelling” national security interest.
Justices reviewed the request and chose to take up the case in just two days. By setting oral arguments for less than a month from now, the court has indicated intervening in the matter is critical and requires swift action. That stands in juxtaposition to the court’s timeline on President-elect Donald Trump’s request for sweeping criminal immunity in his federal election interference case this past term. It took the court 17 days to agree to hear Trump’s case, another two months to hear oral arguments, and then a little over two months to make a precedent-setting decision.
