TikTok asks Supreme Court to temporarily halt a law that would ban the app in the U.S.
LA TimesAaliyah Arnold during a TikTok livestream filmed in Culver City last month. The social media app faces a ban in the U.S. TikTok has filed for an emergency reprieve with the U.S. Supreme Court to buy more time before a nationwide ban on the social media app is set to go into effect next month. A ban, they said, would “shutter one of America’s most popular speech platforms the day before a presidential inauguration.” The fate of TikTok in the U.S. has been up in the air since 2020, when then-President Trump moved to shut down the short-form video app because of national security concerns. “Estimates show that small businesses on TikTok would lose more than $1 billion in revenue and creators would suffer almost $300 million in lost earnings in just one month unless the ban is halted.” More than 170 million Americans use the video app, on which people share dance routines, news stories, recipes and funny videos. “The Supreme Court has an established record of upholding Americans’ right to free speech,” TikTok spokesperson Michael Hughes said in a statement.