Trump Urges Supreme Court To Delay TikTok Deadline

US president-elect Donald Trump has urged the Supreme Court to push back a deadline for banning TikTok in the country to give him time to weigh in on the issue once he takes office.

Trump, who is due to take office on 20 January, the day after the TikTok ban is set to come into force, said he wanted to pursue a “political resolution”.

“President Trump takes no position on the underlying merits of this dispute. Instead, he respectfully requests that the Court consider staying the Act’s deadline for divestment of January 19, 2025, while it considers the merits of this case,” said Trump’s amicus brief, written by D. John Sauer, Trump’s pick for solicitor general.

‘Political resolution’

The briefing said Trump “opposes banning TikTok” and “seeks the ability to resolve the issues at hand through political means once he takes office”.

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”.

The US government and lawmakers have argued that TikTok represents a national security threat due to the large amounts of data collected by the company and its Beijing-based parent ByteDance, and the possibility the company could influence US citizens.

TikTok has denied posing a national security threat.

The Supreme Court is set to hear oral arguments in the case on 10 January, after the law to potentially ban TikTok was upheld by a lower court this month.

‘No evidence’

Three federal judges of the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit unanimously upheld the bipartisan law, ruling against TikTok’s argument that the law would violate free speech protections.

TikTok also filed a brief with the Supreme Court saying the lower court erred in its ruling, saying there was “no evidence” that China had attempted to access information on US users or influence them.

Meanwhile a filing by the Biden administration said that because TikTok “is integrated with ByteDance and relies on its propriety engine developed and maintained in China” its corporate structure presents national security risks.