Washington — A U.S. appeals court on Tuesday granted expedited oral arguments in an appeal against a law that could lead to a ban on the widely popular social media app TikTok.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit held oral arguments on the measure sometime in September, under time pressure to sell the app by its China-based owner within a year or remove it from U.S. app stores.
TikTok and its parent company filed a lawsuit against the Justice Department earlier this month over the law signed by President Biden the following April Congress approved the measure as part of a broader foreign aid package. The video-sharing app and its parent company argue in the lawsuit that the law violates users' First Amendment rights, among other things. With the petition, the parties asked the court to block enforcement of the rule.
Also a group of prominent TikTok users filed a lawsuit challenged the law earlier this month.
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The app has been under fire for years by U.S. officials over warnings that the Chinese government could access the data and use it to manipulate or spy on Americans. But a renewed push against the app gained momentum in Congress earlier this year, when lawmakers approved a foreign aid package that included provisions requiring its sale within a year.
In his court caseTikTok said the law would force the shutdown of the app early next year, arguing that sales of the app are unsustainable before then.
“There is no doubt about it: the law will force a shutdown of TikTok by January 19, 2025, silencing the 170 million Americans who use the platform to communicate in ways that cannot be replicated elsewhere,” the filing said .
Scott MacFarlane and Melissa Quinn contributed reporting.
