The Supreme Court will hear TikTok’s latest attempt to avoid a US ban

The US Supreme Court has agreed to hear TikTok’s latest legal arguments on why it should not be banned or sold in the US.

The US government is taking action against the app over what it says are its links to the Chinese state, links that TikTok and its parent company ByteDance have denied.

The Supreme Court justices did not act TikTok asked for an emergency injunction Against the law, but will instead allow TikTok and ByteDance to present their case on January 10 – nine days before the ban goes into effect.

Earlier in December, The federal appeals court refused attempt to repeal the legislation, saying it is “the culmination of broad, bipartisan work by Congress and successive presidents.”

The Supreme Court is the highest legal authority in the United States, and the decision to take the TikTok case is important because it hears only 100 or so cases a year out of the more than 7,000 petitions it receives.

TikTok had previously argued that the attempt to ban it was unconstitutional as it would affect the freedom of expression of its users in the country.

TikTok said on Wednesday that it was pleased with the Supreme Court’s order.

“We believe the court will find the TikTok ban unconstitutional so that the more than 170 million Americans on our platform can continue to exercise their rights to free expression,” a TikTok spokesperson said in a statement to the BBC.

The appeal constitutes a conflict between freedom of expression and national security, according to University of Richmond law professor Carl Tobias.

“The Court of Appeals found that national security is stronger than First Amendment claims,” Tobias said in an email. “However, the justices will examine potentially conflicting, but important, values.”

While the outcome is difficult to predict, Sarah Krebs, a professor at Cornell University, said it would be surprising for the court to overturn previous rulings that go against the will of Congress and the White House.

“The case has already gone through the executive branch, the legislature, and the lower court, all of which upheld the argument that ownership of TikTok by China-based ByteDance poses a national security risk,” Dr. Krebs said.

However, TikTok’s future does not only depend on the legal process, Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential election may also give it a lifeline.

He met with TikTok chief Shou Zi Chew on Monday CBS News, the BBC’s partner in the United States, reported, citing sources familiar with the meeting, that Trump held a meeting at his home in Mar-a-Lago, Florida.

Trump has said publicly that he opposes the ban, despite supporting it in his first term as president.

But he will not take office until January 20, the day after the deadline to ban or sell TikTok.

“I have a warm spot in my heart for TikTok, because I won the youth by 34 points,” he said at a news conference on Monday, even though a majority of 18- to 29-year-olds backed his challenger, Kamala Harris.

“There are those who say that TikTok has something to do with this,” he said.

But despite Trump’s support, senior Senate Republican Mitch McConnell urged the Supreme Court to reject TikTok’s bid.

In a submission to the court, he described the company’s arguments as “baseless and unsound.”

However, TikTok has the support of some civil liberties organizations.

A group of them submitted a joint filing to the court urging it to prevent a ban on a platform they say “millions use every day to communicate, learn about the world and express themselves.”

Instagram’s parent company Meta will be the main beneficiary of the ban on TikTok, said Kelsey Chickering of market research firm Forrester.

“TikTok is a staple of the thriving creator economy, and a ban would effectively create a meta-monopoly on short-form video,” Chickering said, citing a Forrester survey that found 56% of TikTok users would switch to Instagram Reels at the event.