The U.S. appeals court has invited representatives of TikTok and its parent company ByteDance to an oral hearing to determine whether to sell the app or ban it. However, both Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris are active on TikTok and are trying to win over younger voters, the newspaper wrote. Reuters.
TikTok and ByteDance say the law is unconstitutional and violates Americans' rights to free speech, saying it “radically departs from the country's tradition of supporting an open internet.”
ByteDance said the divestment was “technologically, commercially and legally infeasible” and could be blocked in the US if there is no court ruling.
TikTok and the Justice Department have asked for a decision by December 6, which would allow the US Supreme Court to hear the case before the ban goes into effect.
The US already passed a law on TikTok in April.
President Joe Biden signed the law in April, which gave ByteDance until Jan. 19, 2025, to sell TikTok or face a ban, but extended that deadline by three months if it could certify that its Chinese parent company was making progress toward a sale.
With US lawmakers concerned that China could use the app to access or spy on the country's data, the measure passed overwhelmingly in April, just weeks after it was introduced.
According to the White House, they do not want to ban the app itself, but they object to TikTok's Chinese ownership and cite national security reasons.
