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(Corrects to remove ‘not’ outside clause 5)
by David Shepardson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Justice Department asked the Supreme Court late on Friday to reject President-elect Donald Trump’s request to delay a Jan. 19 law that would have banned or forced the sale of popular social media app TikTok.
Last week, Trump filed a legal brief saying he should have time to pursue a “political solution” to the issue after taking office on Jan. 20. The court has fixed January 10 to hear arguments in the case.
The legislation passed in April requires TikTok’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, to export the platform’s US assets or face a ban. TikTok did not immediately comment.
The DOJ said Trump’s request in the filing could only be granted if ByteDance could prove it could succeed on its merits, but the company has not done so.
The DOJ said no one argues China “seeks to undermine U.S. interests by gathering classified information about Americans and engaging in covert and malicious influence operations.”
“No one can argue that[China’s]takeover of TikTok by ByteDance represents a serious threat to national security: TikTok’s collection of sensitive information and communications of 170 million Americans has become a tool for surveillance,” the government said.
Trump’s lawyer D. John Sawyer said last week that the president-elect “has respectfully requested that the court grant him a transfer deadline of January 19, 2025, considering the merits of this case, thereby allowing the incoming administration of President Trump an opportunity.”
TikTok urged the Supreme Court on Friday to strike down the law on free speech grounds under the United States Constitution’s First Amendment. He said Congress had not tried to ban Chinese-owned apps like Shin or Temu, which strongly suggested that it “targeted TikTok for its social media content, not its data.”
If the court doesn’t block the law by Jan. 19, new downloads of TikTok from the Apple (NASDAQ: ) or Google (NASDAQ: ) app stores will be blocked, but existing users may continue to have access to the app. Services will become less and less available over time and companies will eventually stop working as they are banned from providing support.
Biden could extend the deadline by 90 days if he proves that the bite dance is making a big difference.
Trump’s endorsement of Tik Tok In 2020, he tried to block the app in the US and sell it to US companies due to Chinese ownership.
