President-elect Donald Trump has petitioned the Supreme Court to delay the implementation of the TikTok ban, which is set to take effect on January 19—just one day before his inauguration. The ban, imposed unless TikTok’s parent company ByteDance sells the platform to a non-Chinese owner, has faced resistance, with ByteDance stating it is not open to a forced sale.
Trump’s solicitor general nominee, John Sauer, submitted an amicus brief on Friday, defending the platform’s importance.
“President Trump is one of the most powerful, prolific, and influential users of social media in history,” the brief stated.
The document emphasized TikTok’s unique role in fostering free expression, especially during political campaigns:
“President Trump currently has 14.7 million followers on TikTok with whom he actively communicates, allowing him to evaluate TikTok’s importance as a unique medium for freedom of expression, including core political speech. Indeed, President Trump and his rival both used TikTok to connect with voters during the recent Presidential election campaign, with President Trump doing so much more effectively. As this Court instructs, the First Amendment’s ‘constitutional guarantee has its fullest and most urgent application precisely to the conduct of campaigns for political office.’”
The brief also positioned Trump as uniquely qualified to address the issue. It stated:
“Furthermore, President Trump alone possesses the consummate dealmaking expertise, the electoral mandate, and the political will to negotiate a resolution to save the platform while addressing the national security concerns expressed by the Government—concerns which President Trump himself has acknowledged.”
Sauer also warned of the broader implications of banning the platform.
“This Court should be deeply concerned about setting a precedent that could create a slippery slope toward global government censorship of social media speech,” Sauer argued. “The power of a Western government to ban an entire social-media platform with more than 100 million users, at the very least, should be considered and exercised with the most extreme care—not reviewed on a ‘highly expedited basis.’”
Trump has pledged to “save” the app, a promise he reiterated throughout his campaign. He recently met with TikTok CEO Shou Chew at Mar-a-Lago to discuss the matter.
During a press conference earlier this month, Trump said, “You know, I have a warm spot in my heart for TikTok because I won youth by 34 points, and there are those that say that TikTok has something to do with it.”
The ban was passed by Congress earlier this year in response to widespread concerns over the platform’s role in amplifying opposition to Israel. President Joe Biden signed it into law in April.
TikTok currently has over 170 million users in the United States alone.
