Will Supreme Court Save TikTok?

The U.S. Supreme Court decided on Wednesday to hear a bid by TikTok and its China-based parent company, ByteDance, to block a law intended to force the sale of the short-video app by Jan. 19 or face a ban on national security grounds.

Reuters reports the justices did not immediately act on an emergency request by TikTok and ByteDance, as well as by some of its users who post content on the social media platform, for an injunction to halt the looming ban, opting instead to hear arguments on the matter on Jan. 10.

The challengers are appealing a lower court's ruling that upheld the law. TikTok is used by about 170 million Americans.

Congress passed the measure in April and President Joe Biden, a Democrat, signed it into law. The Justice Department had said that as a Chinese company, TikTok poses "a national-security threat of immense depth and scale" because of its access to vast amounts of data on American users, from locations to private messages, and its ability to secretly manipulate content that Americans view on the app. TikTok has said it poses no imminent threat to U.S. security.

TikTok and ByteDance asked the Supreme Court on Dec. 16 to pause the law, which they said violates free speech protections under the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment.

TikTok on Wednesday said it was pleased the court will take up the issue. "We believe the court will find the TikTok ban unconstitutional so the over 170 million Americans on our platform can continue to exercise their free speech rights," the company said.

The companies said that being shuttered for even one month would cause TikTok to lose about a third of its U.S. users and undermine its ability to attract advertisers and recruit content creators and employee talent.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in Washington on Dec. 6 rejected the First Amendment arguments by the companies.

In their filing to the Supreme Court, TikTok and ByteDance said that "if Americans, duly informed of the alleged risks of 'covert' content manipulation, choose to continue viewing content on TikTok with their eyes wide open, the First Amendment entrusts them with making that choice, free from the government's censorship."