TikTok's Emergency Motion Rejected by US Appeals Court

In a significant setback for TikTok, a U.S. appeals court has rejected the company's emergency bid to temporarily block a law that would require its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to divest the short-video app by January 19. This decision leaves TikTok facing a potential ban in the United States.

TikTok and ByteDance had filed the emergency motion with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia on Monday, seeking more time to present their case to the U.S. Supreme Court. The companies had warned that without court intervention, the law would effectively "shut down TikTok — one of the nation's most popular speech platforms — for its more than 170 million domestic monthly users."

This latest development underscores the escalating tensions between the U.S. and China over technology and data security, with TikTok caught in the crossfire. The future of the app in the U.S. now hangs in the balance, pending further legal proceedings and potential intervention from higher courts.