US President-elect Donald Trump has urged the US Supreme Court to block a law that would ban popular social media app TikTok or force its owner to sell it, saying he should have time after taking office to seek a “political solution” to the case.
The court is scheduled to hear arguments in the case on January 10.
The law requires TikTok’s Chinese owner ByteDance to sell the platform to a foreign company or face a ban, and the US Congress voted in April to ban TikTok unless ByteDance sells the app by January 19.
TikTok, which has more than 170 million US users, and its parent company are seeking to overturn the law, but if the court does not rule in its favor and no sale occurs, the app could be effectively banned in the United States on January 19, a day before Trump takes office.
Trump’s support for TikTok is a reversal from his 2020 stance, when he tried to ban the app in the United States and force its parent company to sell it to American companies because of its Chinese ownership.
It also shows the company’s efforts to strike a détente with Trump and his team during the presidential campaign.
“President Trump is not taking a position on the merits of this dispute,” said John Sauer, Trump’s lawyer and the president-elect’s pick for U.S. attorney general.
“Instead, he respectfully requests that the court consider delaying the statutory deadline of January 19, 2025, while it considers the merits of this case, thereby allowing the incoming Trump administration the opportunity to seek a political resolution to the issues at stake.”
Trump previously met with TikTok CEO Zi Chew in December, hours after the president-elect expressed a “good attitude” toward the app and said he favored allowing TikTok to continue operating in the United States for at least a short period.
The president-elect also said he received billions of views on the social media platform during his presidential campaign.
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