Trump asks Supreme Court to pause law threatening TikTok ban

Greg Stohr, Bloomberg News on Dec 27, 2024

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President-elect Donald Trump asked the U.S. Supreme Court to pause a law that would ban the TikTok social media platform on Jan. 19 if it isn’t sold by its Chinese parent company.

Trump said the court should give him time after his Jan. 20 inauguration to “pursue a political resolution” of the dispute. He didn’t take a position on the constitutionality of the disputed law, which Congress enacted on a bipartisan basis earlier this year.

Trump said in the filing that he “possesses the consummate dealmaking expertise, the electoral mandate, and the political will to negotiate a resolution to save the platform while addressing the national security concerns expressed by the government.”

Trump’s filing followed dueling written arguments submitted Friday by TikTok and the Biden administration.

On Friday, the Justice Department, which is run by Biden appointees, said Chinese control of TikTok poses “grave national-security threats.” The platform “harvests sensitive data about tens of millions of Americans and would be a potent tool for covert influence operations by a foreign adversary,” U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar argued.

Meanwhile, TikTok told the justices that Congress failed to consider alternatives short of a ban. “History and precedent teach that, even when national security is at stake, speech bans must be Congress’ last resort,” the company argued.

Trump once supported a TikTok ban, but he has spoken more favorably about the platform in recent days. He said this month he has a “warm spot” in his heart for TikTok because it helped sway young voters to his side in the November election.

A federal appeals court in Washington previously upheld the law on a 3-0 vote, saying Congress and the president are entitled to a wide berth when they make national security determinations. The law is also being challenged by a group of content creators.