Donald Trump urges US Supreme Court to delay TikTok ban in hopes of 'political resolution'
28 December 2024, 13:19 | Updated: 28 December 2024, 15:24
US President-elect Donald Trump has requested that the US Supreme Court delay an upcoming TikTok ban as he tries to formulate a "political resolution".
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On Friday, his lawyer filed a legal brief with the court, that says Trump "opposes banning TikTok" and "seeks the ability to resolve the issues at hand through political means once he takes office".
On 10 January, the court is scheduled to hear arguments on a US law that would require TikTok's Chinese owner ByteDancer, to sell the social media company to an American firm or experience a ban from January 19, which is the day before Trump comes to office.
US officials and lawmakers had accused ByteDance of being linked to the Chinese government, but the firm denies this.
The app has 170 million users in the US, and in April Congress passed a bill which President Joe Biden signed into law, which included the divest or ban requirement.
TikTok and ByteDance have filed several legal challenges against the law, stating that it threatens American free speech protections with minimal success.
But no potential buyer has emerged, meaning the companies' final chance to derail the ban must take place through the American high court.
Previously the Supreme Court has failed to act on a request for an emergency injunction against the law, but it agreed to allow TikTok, ByteDance and the US government to plead their cases on 10 January, a few days before the ban is due to take effect.
Last week Trump met with TikTok's CEO, Shou Zi Chew, at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.
In his court filing on Friday, Trump said the case represents "an unprecedented, novel, and difficult tension between free-speech rights on one side, and foreign policy and national security concerns on the other".
While the filing said that Trump "takes no position on the underlying merits of this dispute", it added that pushing back the 19 January deadline would grant Trump "the opportunity to pursue a political resolution" to the matter without having to resort to the court.
The US justice department has said that supposed Chinese links to TikTok indicate a national security threat - and several state governments have raised concerns about the popular social media app.
Almost two dozen state attorney generals, led by Montana's Austin Knudsen, have pressed the Supreme Court to uphold law compelling ByteDance and TikTok to divest or be banned.
Earlier in December, a federal appeals court rejected an attempt to overturn the legislation, saying it was "the culmination of extensive, bipartisan action by the Congress and successive presidents."
Trump has publicly said he opposes the ban, despite supporting one in his first term as president.
"I have a warm spot in my heart for TikTok, because I won youth by 34 points," he claimed at a press conference earlier in December, despite the fact that a majority of young voters backed his opponent, Kamala Harris.
He added: "There are those that say that TikTok has something to do with that."
