Published: 12:36am, 19 Dec 2024Updated: 3:51am, 19 Dec 2024
The US Supreme Court said on Wednesday that it had agreed to review a US law that mandates a nationwide ban of the popular Chinese-owned video app TikTok if it fails to secure a non-Chinese buyer by January 19.
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The arguments over whether the law violates freedom of speech protected by the US Constitution will be heard on January 10.
The court has directed the petitioners to submit a brief by December 27, arguing whether the law, officially known as the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, violates the free speech protections.
The app, owned by Chinese firm ByteDance, has about 170 million active users in the US.
“Speech restrictions have survived the Constitution’s most demanding standard only in rare and narrow circumstances,” TikTok said in an emergency appeal it filed on Monday, requesting a temporary halt on the ban.
TikTok had urged the court to “do what it has traditionally done in free speech cases: apply the most rigorous scrutiny to speech bans and conclude that it violates the First Amendment”.