Trump meets with the CEO of TikTok, the Supreme Court asked to block the ban of the application
A lawmaker holds a TikTok sign following a news conference outside the US Capitol in Washington, DC, US, Tuesday, March 12, 2024.
Graeme Sloan | Bloomberg | Getty Images
TikTok on Monday asked the Supreme Court to block a law that would effectively ban the popular social media app from the United States on Jan. 19.
On the same day, President-elect Donald Trump met with TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, NBC News confirmed.
TikTok wants the Supreme Court to first consider its request for that order, which would require its Chinese owner, ByteDance, to sell the app on the same day or by force. Google again an apple stop supporting TikTok on their platforms in the US
The request came three days after the US Court of Appeals in Washington, DC, refused to reverse the outcome of its decision supporting the law, the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act.
The appeals court in that decision cited national security concerns raised by members of Congress who supported the legislation.
Trump earlier on Monday told reporters, “We’re going to look at TikTok,” when asked about a possible ban.
“You know, I have a warm spot in my heart for TikTok,” Trump said, pointing to his performance in the polls among young voters in November.
Trump during his first term in the White House tried to block this program, but during the latest campaign he said he opposes the law passed by Congress and signed by President Joe Biden.
In its Monday petition to the Supreme Court, TikTok’s attorneys wrote, “Congress has enacted a sweeping and unprecedented restriction on speech. TikTok is an online platform that is one of the Nation’s most popular and important places to communicate.”
Lawyers for the company argued that there was a “strong public interest” in having the Supreme Court review an appeals court decision upholding the law in question.
“This law will shut down America’s most popular speech forum the day before the president’s inauguration,” the filing said. “This will shut down the speech of the petitioners and many Americans who use the platform to communicate about politics, commerce, the arts, and other issues of public concern.”
In a statement posted on its X social media account, TikTok Policy said, “The Supreme Court has an established record of respecting Americans’ right to free speech.”
“Today, we ask the Court to do what it has traditionally done in free speech cases: apply strict scrutiny to the suppression of speech and conclude that it violates the First Amendment,” the statement said.
The same post said estimates show that if TikTok is banned, small businesses that use the app will lose more than $1 billion in revenue in just one month, and creators will lose about $300 million in income in one month.
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