TikTok, DOJ Seek ‘Prompt’ Consideration of Legal Challenge to Law Forcing Divestment

ByteDance has stated that it will not sell TikTok, leaving the company to either challenge the law or be prohibited from the U.S. app marketplace next year.

The logo of social media application TikTok is displayed on the screen of an iPhone on an American flag background in Arlington, Va., on Aug. 3, 2020. Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images

TikTok and the Department of Justice (DOJ) jointly requested on May 17 that a federal appeals court expedite consideration of a challenge to a new law that will ban the app in the United States if its Chinese parent company doesn’t divest it, citing national security concerns.

The petition reads, “In light of the large number of users of the TikTok platform, the public at large has a significant interest in the prompt disposition of this matter.”