Trump asks Supreme Court to halt law that could ban TikTok
President-elect calls for more time to find 'political solution' to popular app issues
President-elect Donald Trump has called on the US Supreme Court to halt implementation of a law requiring the sale of popular short-form video app TikTok or risk being banned in the country.
Trump has said he should have more time after taking office to find a "political solution" to the issue.
The court is scheduled to hear arguments in the case on January 10.
The law requires TikTok's owner, Chinese company ByteDance, to sell the platform to a US company by January 19 or face a ban.
TikTok has more than 170 million users in the US, and its parent company had sought to overturn the law. However, if the court rules against them and the divestiture does not take place, the app could effectively be banned in the US on January 19, the day before Trump takes office.
Trump is currently a TikTok supporter, but in 2020 he tried to block the app in the U.S. and force it to be sold to U.S. companies because of its Chinese owner.
“President Trump takes no position on the merits of this dispute,” said Trump attorney John Sauer, who the president-elect is also planning to nominate for U.S. solicitor general, the official who represents the executive branch in court.
“Instead, he respectfully requests that the Court consider postponing the January 19, 2025 divestment deadline … thereby giving a future Trump administration the opportunity to seek a policy resolution of the issues presented in this case,” he added.
Earlier in December, Trump met with TikTok CEO Shou Zichu. The meeting came hours after the president-elect said he had “warm feelings” about the app and would prefer to keep it operating in the U.S. for a while longer.
The president-elect also said he had received billions of views on the social media platform during the campaign.
TikTok did not respond to a request for comment.
The company has previously said the Justice Department had misjudged its ties to China. Its content recommendation system and user data are stored in the U.S. on cloud servers operated by Oracl, and content moderation decisions affecting U.S. users are also made in the U.S., she said.
The U.S. Justice Department believes China's control of TikTok poses a national security threat, a position shared by most U.S. lawmakers..
https://gdb.voanews.com/605a0d0e-e298-4e6b-a0cd-b8c7fad68497_w1023_r1_s.jpg
Trump asks Supreme Court to halt law that could ban TikTok
President-elect calls for more time to find 'political solution' to popular app issues
President-elect Donald Trump has called on the US Supreme Court to halt implementation of a law requiring the sale of popular short-form video app TikTok or risk being banned in the country.
Trump has said he should have more time after taking office to find a "political solution" to the issue.
The court is scheduled to hear arguments in the case on January 10.
The law requires TikTok's owner, Chinese company ByteDance, to sell the platform to a US company by January 19 or face a ban.
TikTok has more than 170 million users in the US, and its parent company had sought to overturn the law. However, if the court rules against them and the divestiture does not take place, the app could effectively be banned in the US on January 19, the day before Trump takes office.
Trump is currently a TikTok supporter, but in 2020 he tried to block the app in the U.S. and force it to be sold to U.S. companies because of its Chinese owner.
“President Trump takes no position on the merits of this dispute,” said Trump attorney John Sauer, who the president-elect is also planning to nominate for U.S. solicitor general, the official who represents the executive branch in court.
“Instead, he respectfully requests that the Court consider postponing the January 19, 2025 divestment deadline … thereby giving a future Trump administration the opportunity to seek a policy resolution of the issues presented in this case,” he added.
Earlier in December, Trump met with TikTok CEO Shou Zichu. The meeting came hours after the president-elect said he had “warm feelings” about the app and would prefer to keep it operating in the U.S. for a while longer.
The president-elect also said he had received billions of views on the social media platform during the campaign.
TikTok did not respond to a request for comment.
The company has previously said the Justice Department had misjudged its ties to China. Its content recommendation system and user data are stored in the U.S. on cloud servers operated by Oracl, and content moderation decisions affecting U.S. users are also made in the U.S., she said.
The U.S. Justice Department believes China's control of TikTok poses a national security threat, a position shared by most U.S. lawmakers..
https://gdb.voanews.com/605a0d0e-e298-4e6b-a0cd-b8c7fad68497_w1023_r1_s.jpg
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