Supreme Court Weighs TikTok Ban as Trump Requests Delay

The U.S. Department of Justice has asked the Supreme Court to reject President-elect Donald Trump's plea to postpone a law requiring TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, to sell U.S. assets by January 19, due to national security concerns. The issue revolves around TikTok's data collection and potential espionage.

The U.S. Department of Justice has appealed to the Supreme Court to dismiss President-elect Donald Trump's request to defer a law that mandates the sale or ban of TikTok by January 19. This law obligates ByteDance, the Chinese owner of the popular app, to divest its U.S. assets as a national security measure.

Trump's legal brief argues for more time after assuming office on January 20 to potentially orchestrate a 'political resolution.' The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments on January 10. The DOJ has highlighted that ByteDance has not demonstrated a likely success in court, emphasizing China's aggressive data-collection practices on U.S. citizens as a national security threat.

Contrarily, TikTok argues under the First Amendment, seeking to block the law citing it targets its social-media content rather than its data. If not blocked, new downloads would stop post-January 19, but existing users would still access the app, albeit with degrading services. Biden may extend the deadline should ByteDance show substantive divestiture progress.

(With inputs from agencies.)