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Written by David Shepardson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Justice Department asked the Supreme Court on Friday to reject President-elect Donald Trump’s request to delay the implementation of legislation that would restrict popular media use of public TikTok or force its sale on January 19.
Last week, Trump issued a legal brief arguing that he should have time after taking office on Jan. 20 to pursue a “political solution” to this issue. The court is set to hear arguments in the case on January 10.
The law, passed in April, requires TikTok’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, to divest from the US platform or face a ban. TikTok did not immediately comment.
The DOJ said in its filing that Trump’s request could only be approved if ByteDance established that it could be successful on merits but the company had not done so.
The DOJ says that no one opposes China “seeking to undermine US interests by collecting sensitive information about Americans and engaging in activities of malicious and malicious influence.”
The government asserted that “no one can seriously deny that (China’s) control of TikTok by ByteDance represents a major threat to national security: TikTok’s collection of personal data of about 170 million Americans and their names make it a powerful tool for espionage.”
Trump’s lawyer, D. John Sauer, wrote last week that the president-elect “respectfully asks the Court to consider suspending the Act’s January 19, 2025 deadline, while it considers the merits of this case, thereby allowing the incoming administration of President Trump the opportunity to pursue a political solution to the questions involved in the case.”
TikTok on Friday urged the Supreme Court to block the law on grounds of free speech under the First Amendment of the US Constitution. It said that Congress has not yet sought to ban Chinese apps like Shein or Temu, which strongly suggests it is “targeting TikTok for its social media content, not its data.”
If the court does not block the law on January 19, new downloads of TikTok on the Apple (NASDAQ:) or Google (NASDAQ:) app stores would be blocked but existing users could continue to get the app. Services will slow down over time and eventually stop working as companies will be banned from providing support.
Biden could extend the deadline by 90 days if he confirms that ByteDance is making significant progress in the hacking process.
Trump’s support for TikTok is a change from 2020, when he tried to ban the app in the United States and force it to be sold to American companies because of its Chinese ownership.
