TikTok files emergency motion to stop ban from taking result

TikTok on Monday requested the emergency pause of a law set to ban the popular social media app next month.

A temporary lifting of the assess would afford the Supreme Court period to determine whether it should review the law, the corporation said in a court filing.

The filling arrives days after TikTok — which boasts more than 170 million U.S. users — lost a test against the assess in a federal appeals court.

A pause of the law would afford the Supreme Court period to determine whether it should “review this exceptionally significant case,” TikTok said in the court filing on Monday.

Attorneys for the Department of fairness on Monday urged the federal court to decline TikTok’s request for a temporary injunction. The DOJ said it plans to file a formal motion opposing TikTok’s request as soon as Wednesday, but the government agency urged the court to decline TikTok’s request even before then.

“The Court is familiar with the relevant facts and law and has definitively rejected petitioners’ constitutional claims in a thorough selection that recognizes the critical national-safety interests underlying the Act,” the DOJ’s attorneys said.

The law would impose a nationwide ban of TikTok on Jan. 19, 2025, unless the corporation finds a different owner.

The ban would receive result one day before the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump, who has signaled that he would seek to reverse a feasible ban.

The legal pause would also allow the Trump administration an chance to decide its way to TikTok, the corporation’s legal filing said.

TikTok had challenged the law on First Amendment grounds, arguing that a potential ban would deny American users access to a popular venue for community expression. Attorneys for the corporation also disputed claims that the app poses a national safety hazard.

In a ruling on Friday, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit rejected TikTok’s bid to overturn the law.

The federal court found merit in safety concerns about potential data collection or content manipulation undertaken by the Chinese government.

Each of those two concerns “constitutes an independently compelling national safety gain,” the court view said. The court cited previous instances in which the Chinese government had pursued data, noting the government’s use of relationships with Chinese-owned businesses.

The China-based app has faced growing scrutiny from government officials over fears that user data could fall into the possession of the Chinese government and the app could be weaponized by China to spread misinformation. TikTok’s parent corporation, ByteDance, has denied those claims.

There is little evidence that TikTok has shared U.S. user data with the Chinese government or that the Chinese government has asked the app to do so, cybersecurity experts previously told ABC information.

In a statement on Monday, TikTok urged the Supreme Court to intervene on its behalf.

“The Supreme Court has an established historical record of protecting Americans’ correct to free talk, and we expect they will do just that on this significant constitutional issue,” the corporation said. “Unfortunately, the TikTok ban was conceived and pushed through based upon inaccurate, flawed and hypothetical information, resulting in outright censorship of the American people.”

ABC information’ Steven Portnoy contributed to this update.