A federal appeals court has denied TikTok’s attempt to overturn its pending ban and refused the company’s request to pause the ruling and the January 19 deadline for a required sale.
Due to a federal law mandating that TikTok either sell to a new owner or face a ban in the United States, the company had asked for an emergency pause. They argued this would give the Supreme Court time to decide whether to review the law.
However, the judges on the D.C. Circuit stated that Congress made a “deliberate choice” to establish a 270-day timeframe for the sale-or-ban process, which allows for only one extension.
“The petitioners have not identified any case in which a court, after rejecting a constitutional challenge to an Act of Congress, has prevented the Act from going into effect while review is sought in the Supreme Court,” the judges wrote in an unsigned order.
TikTok has not yet commented on the order.
The Justice Department also asked the court to reject TikTok’s request for a temporary injunction.
“The Court is familiar with the relevant facts and law and has definitively rejected petitioners’ constitutional claims in a thorough decision that recognizes the critical national-security interests underlying the Act,” the DOJ’s attorneys said.
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The Justice Department did not immediately comment on the decision either.
The case would have to go to the Supreme Court if TikTok chooses to appeal, which could delay the Jan. 19 deadline.
President Joe Biden signed the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, which was part of a massive, $95 billion foreign aid package passed by Congress, on April 24.
As part of the act, TikTok, which has over 170 million U.S. users, is forced to sell the company from its current Chinese-based owner ByteDance.
The president and some congressional leaders have argued that the ultimatum against TikTok was necessary because of security concerns about ByteDance and its connections to the Chinese government.
ByteDance rebutted those allegations in its lawsuit, arguing there has been no tangible evidence that the app poses any security risk and filed a lawsuit against the Justice Department in May.
The law has prompted major protests from TikTok’s American users who have defended the app.
President-elect Donald Trump once proposed a TikTok ban when he was in office but has changed his stance and signaled he would reverse the ban once in office. A reversal, however, would require approval from both houses of Congress.
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