(Corrects paragraph 5 to remove redundant ‘no’)
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 implementation of a law that would have banned popular social media app TikTok or forced its sale until Jan. 19.
Last week, Trump filed a legal filing arguing that he should have time after taking office on Jan. 20 to seek a “political solution” to the problem. The court will hear arguments in the case on January 10.
The law, passed in April, requires TikTok’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, to divest itself of the platform’s American assets or face a ban. TikTok did not immediately comment.
The DOJ said in its filing that Trump’s request can only be granted if ByteDance has determined that it is likely to succeed on the merits, but the company has not done so.
The DOJ said no one disputes that China “seeks to undermine U.S. interests by collecting sensitive information about Americans and engaging in covert and malicious influence operations.”
The government argued that “no one can seriously dispute that (China’s) control of TikTok through ByteDance poses a serious threat to national security: TikTok’s collection of reams of sensitive data on 170 million Americans and their contacts makes it a powerful tool for espionage.”
Trump’s lawyer, D. John Sauer, wrote last week that the president-elect “respectfully requests that the Court consider delaying the January 19, 2025 divestment Act deadline while it considers the merits of this case, thereby allowing the incoming administration of President Trump the opportunity to seek political resolution of disputed issues in the case.”
On Friday, TikTok urged the Supreme Court to block the free speech law under the First Amendment of the US Constitution. It said Congress did not seek to ban Chinese-owned apps like Shein or Temu, strongly suggesting it “targeted TikTok for its social media content, not data.”
If a court doesn’t block the law by Jan. 19, new downloads of TikTok on the Apple (NASDAQ: ) or Google (NASDAQ: ) app stores will be banned, but existing users can continue to access the app. The services would degrade 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 toward a sale.
Trump’s support for TikTok is a reversal from 2020, when he tried to block the app in the United States and force it to sell to American companies because of its Chinese ownership.
