By Kanishka Singh and Nandita Bose
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President-elect Donald Trump has urged the US Supreme Court to halt the implementation of a law that would ban the social media platform TikTok or force its sale, saying he needs time after taking office to pursue a “political decision” on the matter.
The court is set to hear the case on January 10.
The law would require TikTok's Chinese owner, ByteDance, to sell the platform to an American company or face a ban. The US Congress voted in April to block it unless ByteDance sells the app in Jan.
TikTok, which has more than 170 million US users, and its parent are calling for legislation. But if the court does not rule against them and no violence occurs, the app can be effectively banned in the United States in January. 19, the day before Trump took office.
Trump's support for TikTok is a change from 2020, when he tried to block the app in the United States and force it to be sold to American companies because of its Chinese ownership.
It also shows the company's significant effort to intervene with Trump and his team during the presidential campaign.
“President Trump is not taking a position on the fundamentals of this conflict,” said D. John Sauer, Trump's lawyer who is also the president-elect of the US attorney general.
Instead, he respectfully requests that the Court consider suspending the separation deadline of January 19, 2025, while considering the merits of this case, thereby allowing the incoming administration of President Trump the opportunity to pursue a political solution to the issues in the case,” he added.
Trump had met with TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew in December, hours after the president-elect said he had a soft spot for the app and would like to allow TikTok to continue operating in the United States for a while.
The president-elect also claimed to have received billions of views on the social media platform during his presidential campaign.
TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The company has previously said the Justice Department has dismissed its communications with China, arguing that its content recommendation engine and user data are stored in the United States on cloud servers it operates. Oracle Company (NYSE:) while content moderation decisions affecting US users are made in the United States as well.
Free speech advocates separately told the Supreme Court on Friday that the US law against TikTok reinvigorates a regulatory regime imposed by enemies of the United States.
The US Department of Justice has said that China's control of TikTok poses a continuing threat to national security, a position supported by many US lawmakers.
Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen led a coalition of 22 lawyers on Friday in filing an amicus brief asking the Supreme Court to uphold the state's TikTok takedown or ban law.