Supreme Court to hear arguments over TikTok ban on Jan. 10
The Supreme Court will hear arguments on Jan. 10 over TikTok's effort to block a federal ban on the platform if it's not sold by Jan. 19.
The announcement from the Supreme Court comes days after a lower court rejected TikTok's request for a temporary pause of the ban. TikTok had argued that a pause would afford the Supreme Court time to weigh the case.
TikTok -- which boasts more than 170 million U.S. users -- challenged the sale-or-ban law on First Amendment grounds, arguing that a potential ban would limit the free-expression rights of its users.
In a ruling earlier this month, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit rejected TikTok’s bid to overturn the law. The court found merit in security concerns about potential data collection or content manipulation undertaken by the Chinese government.
If the Supreme Court upholds the ban, it will take effect one day before the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump, who has signaled he would consider seeking to reverse the measure.
There is little evidence that TikTok has shared U.S. user data with the Chinese government or that the Chinese government has asked the app to do so, cybersecurity experts previously told ABC News.
TikTok filed its application for an emergency pause of the ban with the Supreme Court on Monday.
"The Supreme Court has an established record of upholding Americans’ right to free speech. Today, TikTok is asking the Court to do what it has traditionally done in free speech cases: apply the most rigorous scrutiny to speech bans and conclude that it violates the First Amendment," TikTok told ABC News in a statement after filing its request.
Trump was set to meet with TikTok CEO Shou Chew at Mar-a-Lago on Monday, a source familiar told ABC News.
Earlier that day, Trump said in a news conference that he had a “warm spot” in his heart for TikTok, crediting the app for helping him win over young voters in last month's presidential election. CNN was the first to report on the meeting.
Once a TikTok critic, Trump reversed his stance on the social media platform in March, just weeks before Congress passed the potential ban.
ABC News' Selina Wang contributed to this report.
