In response to these allegations about the app, which has 170 million users in the United States, Congress passed a bill in April that included divestment or ban requirements and was signed into law by President Joe Biden.
TikTok and ByteDance have filed multiple lawsuits against the law, alleging it threatens U.S. free speech protections, with little success. With no potential buyers emerging so far, the companies’ last chance to break the ban lies in the U.S. high court.
The Supreme Court had previously declined to grant an emergency injunction against the law, but agreed to accept the lawsuit from TikTok, ByteDance and the U.S. government on January 10, just days before the ban went into effect. .
Last week, President Trump met with TikTok CEO Sho Zhi Chiu at his Mar-a-Lago, Florida, mansion.
President Trump said in a court filing Friday that the case represents “unprecedented, novel, and difficult tensions between free speech on the one hand and foreign policy and national security concerns on the other.” He said there was.
The filing states that Trump “has not taken any position on the fundamental merits of this dispute,” but that extending the January 19 deadline would give Trump an opportunity to resolve the issue without resorting to court. It added that there would be an “opportunity to pursue a political solution”. .
The U.S. Department of Justice claims TikTok’s ties to China pose a national security threat, and several state governments have expressed concerns about the popular social media app.
Nearly two dozen state attorneys general, led by Montana’s Austin Knudsen, asked the Supreme Court to uphold a law that would force ByteDance and TikTok to sell or be banned.
In early December, a federal appeals court rejected an attempt to overturn the bill, saying it was “the culmination of extensive bipartisan action by Congress and past presidents.”
President Trump has publicly said he opposes the ban, even though he supported it during his first term as president.
“I have a lot of heart for TikTok because I won against young people by a 34-point margin,” he claimed at a press conference in early December, but young voters have a strong The majority supported her opponent, Kamala Harris.
“Some say TikTok has something to do with it,” he added.
