The TikTok short video hosting service logo is seen on a mobile device in this illustrated photo taken on July 17, 2024 in Warsaw, Poland.
Yap Arians | Noor Photos | Getty Images
The U.S. Justice Department late on Friday asked the Supreme Court to reject President-elect Donald Trump’s request to delay the implementation of a law that would ban the popular social media app TikTok or force it to be sold by January 19.
Last week, Trump filed a legal brief saying he should have time to seek a “political solution” to the issue after taking office on January 20. The court is scheduled to hear arguments in the case on January 10.
The law, passed in April, requires TikTok’s Chinese owner ByteDance to divest the platform of its U.S. assets or face a ban. TikTok had no immediate comment.
The Justice Department said in the filing that Trump’s request could be approved only if Bitbeat determines it is likely to succeed, but the company has not yet done so.
The Justice Department said no one disputes that China “seeks to harm U.S. interests by collecting sensitive data about Americans and engaging in covert and malign influence operations.”
The government claims that “no one seriously questions that (China’s) control of TikTok through Bytedance poses a serious national security threat: TikTok collects vast amounts of sensitive data about 170 million Americans and their contacts, making it an espionage powerful tool.
Trump’s attorney, D. John Sauer, wrote last week that the president-elect “respectfully requests that the court consider delaying the January 19, 2025 divestment deadline set forth in the act while considering the merits of the case so that President Trump’s The incoming administration has an opportunity to seek a political solution to the contentious issues in the case.
TikTok on Friday urged the Supreme Court to block the law on free speech grounds under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. It said Congress has not sought to ban Chinese-owned apps like Shein or Temu, which strongly suggests “it is targeting TikTok’s social media content, not its data.”
If a court does not block the law by Jan. 19, new downloads of TikTok on the Apple AAPL.O or Google GOOGL.O app stores will be blocked, but existing users will continue to have access to the app. Services will degrade over time and eventually stop working because the company will be banned from providing support.
Biden could extend the deadline by 90 days if he proves that ByteDance has made substantial progress on divestment.
Trump’s support for TikTok is a reversal from 2020, when he sought to block the app in the United States and force its sale to an American company because of its Chinese ownership.
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