The company’s application asks the court to put the Jan. 19 divest-or-ban deadline on hold until the justices resolve TikTok’s First Amendment claims on their normal docket.
“The Act will shutter one of America’s most popular speech platforms the day before a presidential inauguration,” TikTok’s lawyers wrote in the application.
“This, in turn, will silence the speech of Applicants and the many Americans who use the platform to communicate about politics, commerce, arts, and other matters of public concern,” they continued.
The platform asked the high court to act by Jan. 6, roughly two weeks ahead of the potential ban, to provide app stores and internet hosting providers with enough notice to comply, if needed.
TikTok brought its fight to the justices after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit rejected the company’s legal challenge to the law and declined to delay the deadline until TikTok exhausts its appeal.
The company emphasized in its filing Monday that President-elect Trump has expressed sympathy with the video sharing platform.
“An interim injunction is also appropriate because it will give the incoming Administration time to determine its position, as the President-elect and his advisors have voiced support for saving TikTok,” it wrote.
Trump voiced opposition to the divest-or-ban law on the campaign trail and promised to “save TikTok.” However, the president-elect has offered few details about his plans to protect the app since winning the election.
When asked Monday whether he would take steps to prevent the ban from taking effect, Trump said he will “take a look.”
“I have a warm spot in my heart for TikTok,” he said during a press conference at Mar-a-Lago, sayng he “won youth by 34 points, and there are those that say that TikTok had something to do with it.”
Read more in a full report at TheHill.com.
