The US Justice Department and TikTok requested on Friday ( May 17 ) a US appeals court to set a quick-track schedule to take into account the legal challenges to a new law that mandates that China-based ByteDance divest its US assets by January 19 or face a ban.
The Justice Department, ByteDance, and a group of TikTok content developers asked the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to act by December 6 so that they could ask for the Supreme Court’s decision as needed before the US date.
A group of TikTok authors filed a lawsuit on Tuesday to stop the 170 million-use software from being used by 170 million Americans, claiming it has had” a tremendous effect on British life.”
In a similar complaint filed by TikTok and its family business ByteDance last week, the company claimed that the law violates the US Constitution on numerous basis, including violating First Amendment free speech privileges.
The US Justice Department and TikTok petition stated that the public at large has a considerable interest in the timely resolution of this problem given the large number of people of the TikTok system.
With a quick-track plan, TikTok said it believes the legal dispute can be settled without first requesting an immediate preliminary injunction.