Donald Trump Requests US Supreme Court to Postpone TikTok Ban

Trump Requests Delay on TikTok Ban

US President-elect Donald Trump has asked the US Supreme Court to postpone a potential TikTok ban.

On Friday (Dec. 27), Trump’s lawyer submitted a legal brief stating that he “opposes the TikTok ban” and “is looking to address the issues through political means once he takes office.”

This comes after TikTok and its parent company ByteDance lost an appeal earlier this month, with a US federal appeals court panel unanimously deciding to uphold legislation that would prohibit TikTok in the country.

The legal representatives for the social media app argued that the ban infringed upon the First Amendment rights of its users, but this claim was dismissed by the court, which asserted that it aimed to protect free speech and restrict a “foreign adversary state” from “collecting data about people in the United States.”

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Upcoming Court Hearing

On Jan. 10, the court is set to hear additional arguments regarding the law, which mandates that TikTok must be sold by China’s ByteDance and sever connections with it or face a ban by Jan. 19—the day before Trump assumes office.

Trump, who secured a historic victory in the 2024 US presidential election last month, has openly opposed the ban, despite supporting it during his first term.

Tik Tok
Tik Tok logo. Photo: Asanka Ratnayake/getty

“I have a soft spot for TikTok because I won among young people by 34 points,” Trump remarked at a news conference in early December, despite Kamala Harris receiving the most votes from the young demographic. “There are those who say TikTok has something to do with this,” he noted.

According to BBC News, Trump met with TikTok CEO Shu Tzu Chu at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida last week.

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In his court filing, Trump stated that the case represents “an unprecedented, new and complex tension between free speech rights on the one hand and foreign policy and national security issues on the other.”

He further emphasized that he “takes no position on the merits of this dispute” but added that extending the deadline to Jan. 19 would provide him “the opportunity to pursue a policy resolution” without resorting to the courts.

Donald Trump
Donald Trump. CREDIT: Chip Somodevilla/Getty

The “sell or ban” measure was enacted by US President Joe Biden earlier this year (April 24) following a prolonged dispute regarding concerns that the company’s ownership structure could permit the Chinese government access to data from millions of American users.

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To date, over 30 US states, Canada, and the European Union have each banned the app on government devices due to worries about potential security risks. India imposed a nationwide ban on the app in January 2021, while Taiwan and Afghanistan followed suit in 2022.

The consequences of a TikTok ban in the US could significantly affect the music industry, as a recent report indicated that most singles topping both the US and UK charts in 2024 were linked to TikTok trends.

Additionally, in May, TikTok reached a new licensing agreement with Universal Music Group after the label initially withdrew its artists’ music from the platform due to a failure to negotiate a new deal.

In September, TikTok discontinued its streaming service TikTok Music after just over a year of operation.

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