Senators urge Biden to grant ByteDance 90-day reprieve from law requiring sale [View all]
Source: Reuters
December 19, 2024 9:12 PM EST Updated 12 hours ago
WASHINGTON, Dec 19 (Reuters) - Democratic Senator Ed Markey and Republican Senator Rand Paul on Thursday urged President Joe Biden to extend by 90 days a Jan. 19 deadline for China-based ByteDance to sell the U.S. assets of its short-video app TikTok or face a ban.
The Supreme Court said on Wednesday it will consider the legal challenge of TikTok and ByteDance, seeking an injunction to halt the looming ban or sale and will hold arguments on the matter on Jan. 10. "Given the law’s uncertain future and its consequences for free expression, we urge you to trigger the 90-day extension before January 19," the senators wrote Biden.
The White House and TikTok did not immediately comment. The challengers are appealing a lower court's ruling that upheld the law. TikTok is used by about 170 million Americans. Congress passed the measure in April and Biden, a Democrat, signed it into law. The Justice Department had said that as a Chinese company, TikTok poses "a national-security threat of immense depth and scale" because of its access to vast amounts of data on American users, from locations to private messages, and its ability to secretly manipulate content that Americans view on the app. TikTok has said it poses no imminent threat to U.S. security.
TikTok and ByteDance say the law violates free speech protections under the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment.
Read more: https://www.reuters.com/technology/senators-urge-biden-grant-bytedance-90-day-reprieve-law-requiring-sale-2024-12-19/
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