As reported by Reuters, President-elect Trump has requested that the U.S. Supreme Court delay the TikTok ban. If the ban goes through, the popular social media platform would either shut down in the U.S. or sell to a domestic company.
Trump has argued that he needs more time to seek a political resolution to the matter. The U.S. Supreme Court will hear further arguments on the issue on January 10, 2025.
In a previous article, we discussed how the law mandates ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, to sell the platform to an American company. U.S. Congress set a deadline in April, stating that TikTok would be banned unless ByteDance completed the sale by January 19, 2025.
With over 170 million users in the U.S., ByteDance has fought to have the TikTok ban overturned. However, if the court doesn’t rule in their favor, the platform could face an effective ban on January 19, 2025—just one day before Trump takes office.
This marks an unusual turn of events for Trump, who previously sought to block TikTok in the U.S. over its Chinese ownership in 2020. Reuters noted that ByteDance worked to build ties with Trump’s team during his campaign.
Trump met with TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew this month, shortly after expressing his favorable view of the app, and said he supported its continued operations in the U.S. for now.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Justice Department maintains that Chinese control of TikTok is a national security threat, a stance backed by many lawmakers.
We’ll continue to update readers as this story develops.
