During a press conference on Monday, Trump was asked about his plans to prevent a ban on TikTok. He expressed his fondness for the app, stating he has “a warm spot in my heart for TikTok” and would “take a look” at the issue.
Trump met with TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew in Florida on Monday, according to a source familiar with the plans who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity. TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the meeting.
The companies have requested the Supreme Court to make a decision by January 6. If the request is denied, they will need to undertake the “complex task of shutting down TikTok” in the United States and coordinate with service providers by the legal deadline.
This dispute arises amid escalating trade tensions between China and the United States, the world’s two largest economies.
‘RIGOROUS SCRUTINY’
TikTok has denied sharing U.S. user data, accusing U.S. lawmakers of speculative concerns.
TikTok spokesperson Michael Hughes stated after the filing, “We are asking the court to do what it has traditionally done in free speech cases: apply the most rigorous scrutiny to speech bans and conclude that it violates the First Amendment.”
The D.C. Circuit’s ruling emphasized, “The First Amendment exists to protect free speech in the United States. Here, the government acted solely to protect that freedom from a foreign adversary nation and to limit that adversary’s ability to gather data on people in the United States.”
The law would prohibit providing certain services to TikTok and other foreign adversary-controlled apps, including offering them through app stores like Apple and Google’s, effectively preventing their continued use in the U.S. unless ByteDance divests TikTok by the deadline.
A ban could pave the way for future U.S. crackdowns on other foreign-owned apps. In 2020, Trump attempted to ban WeChat, owned by Chinese company Tencent, but was blocked by the courts.
