TikTok ban

The Supreme Court Building. Photo Credit: Joe Ravi

The last-minute Supreme Court review of the TikTok ban law is underway, and confidential documents are officially being transferred to the nation’s highest court.

That documents transfer has arrived just days before the Supreme Court will hear a decidedly important oral argument in connection with the TikTok ban challenge.

As most already know, the app and its ByteDance parent have long been pushing back against the relevant law, under which the latter company must divest from TikTok’s U.S. operation or cease operating the platform domestically.

Thus far, however, this multifaceted opposition has failed to bring about the desired result for TikTok. Unless the platform sells in the States or receives a once-off 90-day extension to find a buyer, it’ll seemingly be forced to go dark stateside.

The sale deadline is set specifically for January 19th – one day before President-elect Trump’s inauguration. Meanwhile, the mentioned extension, which senators from both sides of the aisle are urging, would have to come from the president.

It’s unclear whether President Biden intends to delay the forced-sale cutoff. But the president-elect has urged the Supreme Court to pause the deadline until after he assumes office.

In other words, there’s quite a lot riding on TikTok’s Supreme Court appeal, for which a two-hour oral argument is slated to take place on Friday, January 10th.

Lengthy briefs have already been filed ahead of this oral argument – and confidential documents are evidently making their way to Supreme Court justices as well. “Sealed portions of the record were transferred to the Supreme Court via Syncplicity,” appeals court clerks told the Supreme Court clerk in a recent letter.

Additionally, a “classified information security officer” would handle “the delivery of the classified material” that’s part of the litigation, per the concise text.

Though it perhaps goes without saying, it’ll be extremely interesting to see how the oral argument – and the overarching Supreme Court appeal – unfolds.

Closer to the present, the unprecedented TikTok ban situation is for obvious reasons continuing to fuel uncertainty for the creators and businesses that utilize the popular platform.

On the personnel side, Sameer Singh, TikTok’s global business solutions head for North America, has reportedly exited the company. And businessman Kevin O’Leary (who previously emphasized his desire to buy the app) has formally joined up with former Dodgers owner Frank McCourt to explore a bid via “The People’s Bid for TikTok.”

Despite the long list of potential TikTok buyers at hand, the app’s sale is extremely far from set in stone. ByteDance has been adamant from the outset that a divestment simply isn’t in the cards, and any deal would bring a number of logistical hurdles pertaining to user data and a whole lot else.