US President-elect, Donald Trump has called on the the country’s Supreme Court to delay a planned TikTok ban while he works on a political resolution.
His lawyer on Friday filed a legal brief with the court that says Trump opposes TikTok Ban and seeks the ability to resolve the issues at hand through political means once he takes office.
In his court filing, Trump said the case represents an unprecedented and difficult tension between free-speech rights on one side, and foreign policy and national security concerns on the other.
The filing stated that Trump takes no position on the underlying merits of the dispute, noting that pushing back the 19 January deadline would grant Trump the opportunity to pursue a political resolution to the matter without having to resort to the court.
The court is due to hear on January 10, arguments on a US law that requires TikTok’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, to sell the social media company to an American firm or face a ban come 19 January – a day before Trump takes office.
US officials and lawmakers had accused ByteDance of being linked to the Chinese government.
Though the firm denied the allegations, the development led Congress to pass a bill in April, which President Joe Biden signed into law, that included the divest or ban requirement.
TikTok and ByteDance have filed multiple legal challenges against the law, arguing that it threatens American free speech protections, with little success.
While the Supreme Court has previously declined to act on a request for an emergency injunction against the law, it agreed to allow TikTok, ByteDance and the US government to plead their cases on 10 January – few days before the ban is due to take effect.
