DOJ urges Supreme Court docket to reject Trump’s request to delay TikTok ban legislation By Reuters

(Corrects paragraph 5 to take away superfluous “no”)

By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Justice Division requested the Supreme Court docket late Friday to reject President-elect Donald Trump’s request to delay implementation of a legislation that might ban the favored social media app TikTok or pressure its sale by January 19.

Final week, Trump filed a authorized temporary arguing that he ought to have time after taking workplace on Jan. 20 to hunt a “political decision” to the difficulty. The court docket is scheduled to listen to arguments within the case on January 10.

The legislation, handed in April, requires TikTok’s Chinese language proprietor, ByteDance, to divest the platform’s U.S. property or face a ban. TikTok didn’t instantly remark.

The DOJ stated in its submitting that Trump’s request may solely be granted if ByteDance had established that it was more likely to succeed on the deserves, however the firm didn’t accomplish that.

The Justice Division stated nobody disputes that China “seeks to undermine U.S. pursuits by accumulating delicate information on People and fascinating in covert and malicious affect operations.”

The federal government asserted that “nobody can severely dispute that (China’s) management of TikTok via ByteDance represents a severe menace to nationwide safety: TikTok’s assortment of a wealth of delicate information on 170 million People and their contacts make them a robust spying software.

Trump’s lawyer, D. John Sauer, wrote final week that the president-elect “respectfully requests that the Court docket contemplate suspending the divestment deadline of January 19, 2025, whereas it considers the deserves of advantage of this case, thus giving the brand new administration of President Trump the chance to hunt a political answer to the problems at concern on this case. »

TikTok on Friday urged the Supreme Court docket to dam the legislation on free speech grounds underneath the First Modification to the US Structure. He stated Congress didn’t search to ban Chinese language apps like Shein or Temu, strongly suggesting “it focused TikTok for its social media content material, not its information.”

If the court docket doesn’t block the legislation by January 19, new downloads of TikTok on the Apple (NASDAQ:) or Google (NASDAQ:) app shops can be banned, however present customers may proceed to entry the app. ‘utility. Companies would degrade over time and ultimately cease working as corporations would now not have the ability to present help.

Biden may prolong the deadline by 90 days if he certifies that ByteDance is making substantial progress towards a divestiture.

Trump’s help for TikTok is a reversal from 2020, when he tried to dam the app in america and pressure its sale to American corporations as a consequence of its Chinese language possession.