TikTok creators urge US Supreme Court to block upcoming app ban, cite free speech threats News
Pacamah, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
TikTok creators urge US Supreme Court to block upcoming app ban, cite free speech threats

The TikTok creators challenging the law that would ban TikTok in the US due to national security concerns filed a reply brief on Friday, just hours after the US government submitted classified materials to the US Supreme Court. The group urged the Court to ignore the government’s arguments saying, “the DC Circuit explicitly declined to rely on any classified materials and upheld the Act solely ‘based upon the public record.’ If that holding is erroneous, this Court should reverse without considering any classified evidence.”

Friday’s filing was the creators’ final chance to block the Protecting Americans From Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act from taking effect. The creators, alongside TikTok’s parent company ByteDance, will face off against the US Department of Justice in a two-hour oral argument before the Court on January 10.

In another filing on Friday, TikTok called on the Supreme Court to either declare the law’s TikTok-specific provision unconstitutional or temporarily halt its enforcement to “carefully consider this significant question.” The company also emphasized the threat the government’s arguments pose to free speech rights. TikTok’s attorneys wrote, “The startling proposition that there should be no judicial scrutiny of a law shuttering a speech platform used by 170 million Americans would mean Congress could ban Petitioners from operating TikTok explicitly because they refused to censor views Congress disfavors or to promote views it likes,”

The government argued that the law’s carefully crafted language and concerns over Chinese influence on the application position it to withstand strict scrutiny. “Congress and the Executive Branch agree that the PRC’s control of TikTok through ByteDance poses a profound national-security threat. As the court of appeals recognized, that concern is ‘well founded, not speculative’,” the US said.

The creators and ByteDance are making these requests as President-elect Donald Trump has supported saving the app. In an amicus brief, Trump asked the Court to grant a stay, temporarily blocking the law from taking effect, to allow him time to pursue a political solution after taking office. However, Trump currently has no authority over the matter, as the law is set to take effect just one day before his inauguration.