US DOJ Urges Supreme Court To Deny Donald Trump's Plea To Postpone TikTok Ban Law

The law, passed in April, requires TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to divest its U.S. operations or face a nationwide ban.

DOJ said Donald Trump’s request could only be granted if ByteDance had established it was likely to succeed on the merits but the company had not done so.

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Late Friday, the U.S. Department of Justice urged the Supreme Court to deny President-elect Donald Trump's request to postpone the enforcement of a law mandating the sale or potential ban of the popular social media app TikTok by January 19. Trump had filed a legal brief earlier, arguing for additional time after his January 20 inauguration to explore a "political resolution" to the matter. The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments on the case on January 10.

The law, passed in April, requires TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to divest its U.S. operations or face a nationwide ban. TikTok has not issued a statement regarding the development.

In its filing, the DOJ stated that Trump's request should be denied unless ByteDance could demonstrate a strong likelihood of prevailing on the legal merits. However, the department asserted that the company had failed to meet this standard. DOJ said that no one disputes that China “seeks to undermine US interests by amassing sensitive data about Americans and engaging in covert and malign influence operations.”

Trump's lawyer, D John Sauer, wrote last week the president-elect “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, thus permitting President Trump’s incoming administration the opportunity to pursue a political resolution of the questions at issue in the case.”

TikTok Urges SC To Block The Law

On Friday, TikTok appealed to the Supreme Court to halt the enforcement of the law, arguing that it violates the First Amendment's protection of free speech. The company contended that Congress had not targeted other Chinese-owned apps like Shein or Temu, which strongly indicates that TikTok was singled out due to its social media content rather than concerns over data security.

If the Supreme Court does not intervene by January 19, new downloads of TikTok from Apple and Google app stores would be prohibited, though current users would still have access to the app. Over time, services would deteriorate and eventually cease functioning as companies would be restricted from providing support.

The law allows President Biden to extend the deadline by 90 days if he certifies that ByteDance is making significant progress toward divesting its U.S. operations. This situation marks a notable shift in political dynamics, as Trump’s current support for TikTok contrasts with his 2020 stance, when he sought to ban the app in the U.S. and push for its sale to American companies over its Chinese ownership.