Two Democratic lawmakers called on Congress and President Biden to extend the January 19 deadline for China-based ByteDance to sell TikTok’s U.S. assets or face a potential ban.
The Supreme Court heard arguments on Friday regarding TikTok and ByteDance’s challenge to the law, according to Reuters.
Noel Francisco, a lawyer for the companies, argued that meeting the deadline for a sale would be impossible.
He warned that if TikTok is banned, the platform used by 170 million Americans would quickly go dark, effectively shutting down.
President Biden could extend the deadline by 90 days if he certifies that ByteDance is making substantial progress toward a divestiture, though it’s unlikely ByteDance will meet that standard.
Senator Edward Markey announced plans to introduce legislation to delay the deadline for ByteDance to sell TikTok by an additional 270 days.
“A ban would dismantle a one-of-a-kind informational and cultural ecosystem, silencing millions in the process,” Markey said Monday.
“A TikTok ban would impose serious consequences on millions of Americans who depend on the app for social connections and their economic livelihood. We cannot allow that to happen.”
President-elect Donald Trump has requested the court to delay the implementation of the law, arguing that he should have time after taking office on January 20 to seek a “political resolution” to the issue.
If the court does not block the law by Sunday, new downloads of TikTok from Apple or Google app stores would be banned, though existing users could still access the app for a time.
However, services would gradually degrade, and eventually, the app would stop working as companies would be prohibited from providing support.
