United States President-elect Donald Trump has urged the Supreme Court to block the implementation of a law that would ban or force the sale of the popular social media app TikTok, arguing that should have time to pursue a “political solution” to the problem after assuming office.
The court is scheduled to hear arguments in this case on January 10.
The law would require TikTok’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, to sell the platform to an American company or face a ban. The US Congress voted in April to ban it unless ByteDance sells the app by January 19.
TikTok, which has 170 million US users, and its parent have tried to overturn the law. But if the court does not rule in their favor and there is no dissent, the app could be effectively banned in the US on January 19, the day before Trump takes office.
Trump’s support for TikTok dates back to 2020, when he tried to block the app in the US and force US companies to sell it because of its Chinese ownership.
It also reflects the company’s significant efforts to build relationships with Trump and his team during the presidential campaign.
“President Trump does not take a position on the substantive merits of this dispute,” said Trump’s lawyer, D. John Sauer, the U.S. Solicitor General. There is also an elected president for
“Instead, he respectfully requests that the Court consider staying the Act’s January 19, 2025, deadline for distribution while it considers the merits of this case, thus preventing President Trump’s upcoming The administration will have an opportunity to pursue a political solution to the questions in the case,” he added.
Trump previously met with TikTok CEO Xu Zhiqiu in December, hours after the president-elect, to say he had a “hot spot” for the app and that he wanted TikTok to be less. Are in favor of allowing them to work in the US, at least for a while.
The president-elect also said that he has received billions of views on the social media platform during his presidential campaign.
The company has previously said the Justice Department misrepresented its relationship with China, arguing that its content recommendation engine and user data were stored on cloud servers operated by Oracle Corp. in the United States. While content moderation decisions that affect US consumers are made in the US. Along with that
Free speech advocates separately told the Supreme Court on Friday that the US law against TikTok evokes censorship regimes imposed by the United States’ authoritarian enemies.
The US Department of Justice has argued that Chinese control of TikTok poses a continuing threat to national security, which is supported by most US lawmakers.
Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen led a coalition of 22 attorneys general on Friday asking the Supreme Court to uphold national TikTok distribution or ban legislation.