TikTok said a ban of the popular app will cost small businesses and social media creators $1.3 billion in revenue and earnings in just one month.
TikTok made the claims in a court filing Monday as it tries to block a law in which the app would be banned on Jan. 19, unless its parent company, ByteDance, sells the app.
"Those numbers would only increase if the shutdown extends for more than a month," Blake Chandlee, president of global business solutions for TikTok, said in the court filing.
TikTok and Byte Dance hope the Supreme Court will intervene and overturn a ruling that upheld the ban by the U.S. Court of Appeals, District of Columbia.
"The Supreme Court should have an opportunity, as the only court with appellate jurisdiction over this action, to decide whether to review this exceptionally important case," TikTok and ByteDance said in the filing, seeking a temporary injunction in the case, CNBC reported.
An injunction would allow the app to continue operating while the Supreme Court decides its fate.
The ban is set to take hold one day before President-elect Donald Trump takes office. Trump has expressed his support for TikTok.
Any ban of TikTok would be costly for creators and the app, Chandlee said.
"Almost 2 million creators in the United States would suffer almost $300 million in lost earnings, and TikTok itself would lose 29% of our targeted global advertising revenue for 2025," Chandlee wrote.
He said that as of November, more than 7 million U.S. accounts use TikTok to do business.
Chandlee said that "69% of these businesses say that using TikTok has led to increased sales for their businesses in the last year, and 39% say that access to TikTok is critical to their business's existence."
Businesses using TikTok contributed $24.2 billion to U.S. gross domestic product in 2023, with TikTok's own operations adding $8.5 billion, Chandlee said.
The Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act grants the president the power to extend the divestment deadline by 90 days if the administration sees that "significant progress" has been made toward a sale.
The Justice Department says under Chinese ownership, TikTok poses a serious national security threat because of its access to vast personal data of Americans, asserting China can covertly manipulate information that Americans consume via TikTok.
Sam Barron ✉
Sam Barron has almost two decades of experience covering a wide range of topics including politics, crime and business.
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