Trump asks US Supreme Court to pause law that could ban TikTok

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US President-elect Donald Trump has asked the country’s top court to pause the implementation of a law that could lead to a ban on China-owned short video app TikTok.

The pause would give the Trump administration time to pursue a “political resolution” to the issue, a lawyer told the Supreme Court.

The law, signed off by outgoing president Joe Biden, gave TikTok’s Chinese parent time until January 19 to divest TikTok in the US or face a ban on the app over national security concerns.

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TikTok and ByteDance, which say their data is safe and that a separation is not possible, have moved the Supreme Court to strike down the law. Arguments on the case are set to begin on January 10.

Trump, meanwhile, has maintained his support for TikTok since his pre-election campaign, with the app helping him amass a wave of young supporters.

As recently as last week, Trump said it could be worth keeping TikTok in US for at least a little while. And his lawyer — and nominee for US solicitor general — D John Sauer reiterated those comments to the Supreme Court.

“President Trump takes no position on the underlying merits of this dispute,” Sauer said.

“Instead, he respectfully requests that the Court consider staying the Act’s deadline for divestment of January 19, 2025, while it considers the merits of this case, thus permitting President Trump’s incoming administration the opportunity to pursue a political resolution of the questions at issue in the case,” he added.

Soft spot

Trump’s support for TikTok is a reversal from 2020, when he tried to block the app in the US and force its sale to American companies because of its Chinese ownership.

It speaks to the significant effort made by TikTok to forge inroads with Trump and his team during the presidential campaign.

Early this month, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew met with Trump at his at his Mar-a-Lago club, hours after the president-elect said he had a “warm spot” for the app.

The president-elect also said he had received billions of views on the social media platform during his presidential campaign.

TikTok has over 170 million US users. If the Supreme Court does not rule in its favour and no divestment occurs, the app could be effectively banned in the United States one day before Trump takes office.

Free speech worry

The app has also previously said the US Justice Department has misstated its ties to China.

It says its content recommendation engine and user data are stored in the United States on cloud servers operated by Oracle, and content moderation decisions that affect US users are made in the United States as well.

It has argued the US government is expressly targeting it, even as the law goes against the country’s free speech laws.

Free speech advocates reiterated those concerns in a separate filing to the Supreme Court on Friday.

The divest-or-ban law threatens to restrict Americans from accessing foreign media in violation of the First Amendment of the US Constitution, they said.

The law “recalls practices that have long been associated with repressive governments,” they added.