DOJ urges Supreme Courtroom to reject Trump request to delay TikTok ban regulation

(Corrects paragraph 5 to take away extraneous ‘not’)

By David Shepardson

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

Final week, Trump filed a authorized transient arguing he ought to have time after taking workplace on Jan. 20 to pursue a “political decision” to the problem. The courtroom is about to listen to arguments within the case on Jan. 10.

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

The DOJ stated in its submitting that Trump’s request might solely be granted if ByteDance had established it was prone to succeed on the deserves however the firm had not completed so.

DOJ stated nobody disputes China “seeks to undermine U.S. pursuits by amassing delicate information about People and fascinating in covert and malign affect operations.”

The federal government asserted that “nobody can critically dispute that (China’s) management of TikTok via ByteDance represents a grave menace to nationwide safety: TikTok’s assortment of reams of delicate information about 170 million People and their contacts makes it a robust software for espionage.”

Trump lawyer D. John Sauer wrote final week the president-elect “respectfully requests that the Courtroom take into account staying the Act’s deadline for divestment of January 19, 2025, whereas it considers the deserves of this case, thus allowing President Trump’s incoming administration the chance to pursue a political decision of the questions at subject within the case.”

TikTok on Friday urged the Supreme Courtroom to dam the regulation on free-speech grounds underneath the First Modification of the U.S. Structure. It stated Congress had not sought to ban Chinese language-owned apps like Shein or Temu, which strongly suggests “it focused TikTok for its social-media content material, not its information.”

If the courtroom doesn’t block the regulation by Jan. 19, new downloads of TikTok on Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) or Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) app shops could be banned however current customers might proceed to entry the app. Companies would degrade over time and ultimately cease working as corporations might be barred from offering help.

Biden might prolong the deadline by 90 days if he certifies 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 due to its Chinese language possession.