Trump asks Supreme Court to pause TikTok ban so he can 'negotiate a resolution'
President-elect Donald Trumpwants the Supreme Court to pause a law that could ban TikTok in the United States next month, arguing he can find a way to "save" the popular video platform without compromising national security or American's free speech rights.
In defense of the law, the outgoing Biden administration warns that unless TikTok is divested from ByteDance, its Chinese-based parent company, China can gather data on Americans or manipulate the content on TikTok to shape U.S. opinion
Opponents of the law − which passed Congress this year with wide bipartisan support − say federal judges so far have given too much deference to the U.S. government’s national security concerns and not enough consideration to freedom of expression.
Trump takes office on Jan. 20, a day after TikTok will be banned in the United States unless it's sold.
Will the Supreme Court save TikTok?What's ahead in the final legal showdown.
TikTok has already asked the Supreme Court to pause enforcement of that requirement while the company continues to make their case for why the law is unconstitutional. But the Supreme Court this month said they won't decide whether to keep the Jan. 19 deadline until after the justices debate the merits of the law during oral arguments scheduled for Jan. 10.
Trump's filing Friday was part of a flurry of written briefs filed before those arguments.
His lawyers called Trump “one of the most powerful, prolific, and influential users of social media in history.” They noted his 14.7 million followers on TikTok and the fact that he founded his own social media platform, Truth Social.
Trump, though, has a complicated history with TikTok. He promised during the 2024 presidential campaign to “save TikTok” despite having tried to ban it during his first administration.
Voters, Trump told the Supreme Court, have now given him a mandate to protect their free-speech rights.
Although Trump told the Supreme Court he has no position on the legal arguments being made for and against the law, he called the First Amendment implications “sweeping and troubling.” He also warned about setting a “dangerous global precedent” toward government censorship while acknowledging that the national security concerns posed by TikTok and ByteDance are “significant and pressing.”
TikTok had proposed ways of addressing the government’s concern without a sale.
But the Biden administration concluded that some data of U.S. users would still flow to China and ByteDance would still be able to exert control over TikTok’s operations in the U.S. The administration also didn’t trust that ByteDance would comply in good faith and didn’t think the U.S. could adequately monitor compliance.
In Friday's filing, Trump said the Jan. 19 sale deadline ties the hands of his incoming administration and he should be given the chance to find a solution that won't infringe on the First Amendment.
Trump alone, his attorneys told the Supreme Court justices, has the "consummate dealmaking expertise, the electoral mandate, and the political will to negotiate a resolution.
Comments
Post a Comment