The U.S. Supreme Court has scheduled a hearing for TikTok’s challenge to a pending law that would ban the app unless its Chinese owner, ByteDance, divests from it. The case will be argued on January 10, just nine days before the scheduled enforcement of the ban.
The court has directed the parties to address whether the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act violates the First Amendment. This development follows TikTok’s request for an emergency reprieve earlier this week, which the court declined to grant.
TikTok’s legal team argued that banning the app would eliminate one of the most popular speech platforms in the U.S., where over 170 million users share videos ranging from dance routines to news updates. The app’s future in the U.S. has been in jeopardy since 2020, when former President Trump raised national security concerns over its ownership by a Chinese company.
The upcoming Supreme Court hearing will mark a critical moment in TikTok’s efforts to remain operational in the U.S., with significant implications for free speech and digital privacy.
