President-elect Donald Trump “filed an unusual petition on Friday asking the Supreme Court to block a law requiring the sale or shutdown of TikTok by January 19” in the United States, observes New York Times. “The deadline falls one day before Mr. Trump's inauguration and the motion asks the justices for a delay,” so he can get hold of the file.
“President Trump is the only one with the expertise to make deals, the mandate to vote, and the political will to negotiate a solution to save the platform while addressing the national security concerns expressed by the state”say the billionaire's lawyers in a letter to the Supreme Court, which must listen to the arguments of both parties on January 10.
The American Congress passed a law last April forcing the Chinese group ByteDance, which it suspects of espionage, to separate from TikTok in the United States, under penalty of banning it from American users from January 19. TikTok had appealed to the Supreme Court, deeming the law unconstitutional.
“Dangerous precedent”
For Mr. Trump's lawyers, if the president-elect “takes no position on the legal arguments made for and against the law”he believes that “the implications for the first amendment”which guarantees freedom of expression, are “radical and disturbing”reports USA Today.
He also warns against creating a “dangerous global precedent” regarding government censorship, while recognizing that the national security concerns posed by TikTok and ByteDance are “important and urgent”adds the American daily.
“Trump did not go so far as to declare the law unconstitutional, as TikTok argued”explains Wall Street Journal. “But he expressed deep reservations about the ban, telling the justices it was possible to spare TikTok while still addressing the national security concerns that pushed Congress to pass it”.
The American media remind us that Donald Trump has not always been an ardent defender of the platform, far from it.
Trump's change of tone
“While Trump had aggressively worked toward a ban on TikTok during his first term, he changed his tune after his campaign successfully used the video app in the 2024 election”REMARK The Verge. “He recently met with TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew at Mar-a-Lago”his private residence in Florida, and said he wanted “keep him around for a while longer.”
The BBC further recalls that during a press conference at the beginning of December, the billionaire said: “I keep a warm place in my heart for TikTok, because I won by 34 points among young people” in the presidential election – “even though a majority of young voters supported her opponent, Kamala Harris”notes the British broadcaster.
“There are those who say TikTok had something to do with it”added the future president.
Donald Trump is not the only one who wants to avoid a ban on TikTok – which claims 170 million users in the United States.
The Supreme Court received further petitions from “groups defending free speech and members of Congress urging [les juges] to save the application on the basis of the first amendment”including several LGBTQI associations or the ACLU, the powerful civil rights organization, Variety.
