U.S. Government Formally Opposes TikTok Emergency Injunction Push As January 19th Sale Deadline Nears

Earlier this week, TikTok moved to pause, pending a Supreme Court review, the quick-approaching January 19th sale deadline it’s staring down in the States. Now, just 38 days ahead of the cutoff, the U.S. government is pushing back against the proposed delay.

The government formally opposed the delay in a 25-page response, after TikTok three days ago submitted the underlying emergency injunction motion. As we covered, the latter promptly followed an appellate court’s unanimous ruling upholding the ban.

Technically, said ban refers to a divestment deadline for ByteDance’s TikTok, which has long grappled with data-security criticism in the U.S. and different nations. But in addition to claiming that it wouldn’t sell under any circumstances, the app has from the outset criticized the requirement as an outright ban.

Whatever one wants to call it, the law in question will result in TikTok’s shutdown in January absent a 90-day extension from the president or a court-ordered pause.

“Before that [TikTok’s forced U.S. shutdown] happens,” TikTok wrote in its injunction filing, “the Supreme Court should have an opportunity, as the only court with appellate jurisdiction over this action, to decide whether to review this exceptionally important case.

“And an injunction is especially appropriate because it will give the incoming Administration time to determine its position—which could moot both the impending harms and the need for Supreme Court review,” the platform proceeded.

With the unprecedented TikTok ban battle going down to the wire to say the least, the government has laid out its opposition to deviating from the current deadline.

“[TikTok and ByteDance] are not entitled, however, to an injunction against an Act of Congress when the only court to consider their constitutional challenge has rejected it,” the response reads in part. “The Supreme Court can decide for itself whether the statute must be enjoined, as petitioners previously contemplated.”

Moreover, TikTok’s request “downplays the national-security concerns underlying both the statute” and prior court rulings on the matter, the same document continues, adding for good measure that TikTok’s arguments allegedly “give short shrift to the national-security harms that all three branches of government have now credited.”

Though it perhaps goes without saying given the one month and change remaining until the sale-or-shutdown date, we should have additional details about the legal challenge’s outcome sooner rather than later.

Meanwhile, nervous creators are preparing for TikTok’s possible cessation of stateside operations, and investor groups, evidently unbothered by the massive price tags floated in the media, are lining up to buy the app.

Of course, TikTok’s many rivals aren’t standing idly by: Warner Music-licensed Connyct debuted on the App Store earlier this week, Triller is plotting a major comeback, and even Spotify is beginning to test the short-form waters.