The Justice Department asked the Supreme Court on Friday to deny President-elect Trump's request to delay a ruling on the TikTok ban, which is scheduled to go into effect the day before he takes office.
Attorney General Merrick Garland Supported claims The platform, owned and operated by Chinese-owned company ByteDance, claims to be a threat to national security.
“TikTok collects large amounts of sensitive data from approximately 170 million Americans and their contacts, making it a powerful tool for espionage, and its role as a critical communication channel It has become a powerful weapon for covert influence operations,” Garland said in a prepared statement Friday.
ByteDance is run by Chinese tech giant Zhang Yiming, who still maintains more than 50 percent of the voting power in the private company, raising concerns among lawmakers.
“As long as TikTok is subject to regulation, [People’s Republican of China’s] “If under control, China could use these weapons against the United States at any time, such as at a pivotal moment of crisis,” the attorneys general wrote.
A lower U.S. appellate court upheld the ban in early December before the case moved to the Supreme Court. The country's Supreme Court last month agreed to take up the case, setting the stage for a fast-paced, high-stakes fight over free speech.
President Trump asked for a delay in the ruling after meeting with TikTok CEO Hsu Chiu in hopes of giving him more time to “negotiate a resolution that saves the platform.” .
Last March, Chu spoke before members of Congress and affirmed the platform's commitment to user safety and data protection, among other regulations.
His visit to the Capitol was followed by Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), who advocated for banning the popular app. helped solidify support for the app. Video sharing apps would violate the First Amendment.
“The sale requirement is fully consistent with the First Amendment and our nation's tradition of prohibiting or restricting foreign control over communications channels and other critical infrastructure,” Garland wrote in Friday's order. ,” Garland wrote in Friday’s warrant. Suppress unfavorable opinions. ”
“However, nothing in this law will prevent a post-sale TikTok from presenting the exact same content in the exact same way. ” he continued.
The high court has until January 19 to issue a ruling to ensure the platform remains available to Americans in Google and Apple's app stores. Oral argument is currently scheduled for January 10th.
President Biden, who encouraged the ban even as he used the app to run for re-election, has the power to extend the ban for 90 days if the company makes significant progress toward a sale.
Trump doubled down on his support for the app earlier this week.
“Why do I want to abolish TikTok?” Trump wrote on Truth Social, along with an image touting the statistics of his account on the app.
His personal account has received a total of 1.4 billion views, with an average of 24 million views per post, according to his posts.
