With TikTok threatening an "immediate shut-off" this Sunday as the Supreme Court decides its fate, Democratic senator Ed Markey (Mass.) is pushing legislation that would allow the Chinese-controlled social media app to remain online for an additional 270 days.
Markey unveiled the legislation late Tuesday. His bill would allow TikTok's Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to continue controlling the app far past January 19, the deadline Congress set for the company to either divest from its Chinese owners or face a ban.
The Supreme Court is expected to rule on TikTok's legal challenge by Monday, a day after the ban would take effect. In arguments before the Court last week, TikTok maintained that its First Amendment rights are being stifled. But even the Court's liberal justices scoffed at those claims, suggesting the divest-or-ban law will be upheld.
"As the January 19 deadline approaches, TikTok creators and users across the nation are understandably alarmed," Markay said on the Senate floor. "They are uncertain about the future of the platform, their accounts, and the vibrant online communities they have cultivated."
Markey's bill, dubbed the Extend the TikTok Deadline Act, is unlikely to hit the Senate floor before week's end, if at all, according to GOP Senate aides. Those aides told the Washington Free Beacon that debate over the Laken Riley Act will dominate the upper chamber's schedule before the weekend. Markey's bill could not reach the floor without unanimous consent.
TikTok said late Tuesday that it is already preparing to shutter the app by Sunday, the original deadline proscribed under Congress's sell-or-ban bill. The announcement appeared to be part of a last-minute bid to gin up outrage among TikTok's 170 million American users prior to the Supreme Court's verdict.
Under the plan, Reuters reported, TikTok users will be greeted with a pop-up message about the ban when they load the app.
With TikTok's future uncertain, American users are reportedly flocking to another Chinese-controlled app known as RedNote, which provides short-form video services similar to those of TikTok. The app is known locally as Xiaohongshu, the Mandarin term for Mao Zedong's "little red book."
RedNote has become the top downloaded app among users of Apple's virtual storefront, according to Newsweek, raising concerns that once TikTok closes, another CCP-controlled venue will take its place.