TikTok Ban: Donald Trump Petitions US Supreme Court

• Trump requests Supreme Court to delay TikTok ban, aiming for a political resolution.
• TikTok and ByteDance face a 19 January deadline to divest or risk a US ban.
• US officials cite national security concerns, while TikTok argues for free speech protections.

US President-elect Donald Trump has petitioned the US Supreme Court to delay an impending TikTok ban, stating his intention to seek a “political resolution” to the matter.

In a legal brief filed on Friday, Trump’s lawyer stated that he “opposes banning TikTok” and seeks “the ability to resolve the issues at hand through political means once he takes office.”

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Eko Hot Blog reports that the Supreme Court is set to hear arguments on 10 January regarding a US law that requires ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese parent company, to sell the platform to an American firm or face a ban on 19 January, one day before Trump’s inauguration.

US lawmakers and officials have accused ByteDance and TikTok of ties to the Chinese government, a claim both companies deny. These concerns, cantered on national security, led Congress to pass legislation in April requiring ByteDance to divest or risk TikTok being banned. President Joe Biden signed the bill into law.

TikTok and ByteDance have filed several legal challenges against the law, citing threats to free speech protections. However, they have seen little success, and with no buyer emerging, their last recourse is the Supreme Court.

Although the court previously declined to grant an emergency injunction, it has agreed to hear arguments from TikTok, ByteDance, and the US government on 10 January.

Regulate TikTok

In his filing, Trump called the case “an unprecedented, novel, and difficult tension between free-speech rights on one side, and foreign policy and national security concerns on the other.” While he did not take a stance on the merits of the law, he argued that delaying the 19 January deadline would allow him to pursue a resolution outside the courts.

The US Justice Department maintains that TikTok’s alleged ties to China pose a national security threat, a concern echoed by several state governments. Nearly two dozen state attorneys general, led by Montana’s Austin Knudsen, have urged the Supreme Court to uphold the law.

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Earlier this month, a federal appeals court upheld the legislation, describing it as “the culmination of extensive, bipartisan action by Congress and successive presidents.”

Trump, despite having supported a TikTok ban during his first term, has publicly opposed the current ban, favoring a diplomatic solution instead.

“I have a warm spot in my heart for TikTok, because I won youth by 34 points,” he claimed at a press conference earlier in December, although a majority of young voters backed his opponent, Kamala Harris.

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

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