The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on the future of TikTok in two weeks. Donald Trump, the President-elect Donald Trump, has asked that the deadline to sell the app be Jan. 19, or risk a ban from the U.S.
In an amicus brief, Trump’s nominee for solicitor general John Sauer asks the court to grant the stay to delay the deadline, so that the incoming President can devise a “negotiated solution” to save the app.
In the filing, Trump is portrayed as the only person with “the consummate dealmaking skills, the electoral mandate and the political will necessary to negotiate a solution to save the platform, while also addressing the government’s concerns regarding national security.”
Trump’s brief states that he is “opposed to banning TikTok at this time in the United States,” but doesn’t express his opinion that the law mandating the sale of TikTok violates the First Amendment. He also says he does not take a position on the merits and takes no stand as to whether the First Amendment was violated.
The filing from Sauer instead asks the court for a temporary suspension of the deadline to allow Trump’s new administration to “pursue a negotiated solution that could prevent a national shutdown of TikTok and preserve the First Amendment rights to tens of millions of Americans while also addressing government’s concerns about national security.”
TikTok has more than 170 million U.S.-based users. It has filed a lawsuit over the law that requires it to be sold or banned by the U.S. if its current Chinese owner ByteDance does not sell the app by January 19.
A federal appeals Court rejected earlier this month the company’s application for an emergency delay in the deadline.
The Supreme Court will hear arguments on the case at its next hearing scheduled for Jan. 10, 2019.
On April 24, President Joe Biden, as part of the massive $95 billion foreign aid package approved by Congress, signed the Protecting Americans From Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act.
Biden and other congressional leaders claimed that the TikTok ultimatum was necessary due to security concerns regarding ByteDance’s connections with the Chinese government.
Trump tried to ban TikTok during his first term but has now reversed the course and pledged to “save the app” during the presidential campaign of 2024.
Sauer, who was a co-author of Trump’s amicus, raised the issue of social media censorship. He cited Brazil’s recent ban on social media platform X for a month, the treatment given to the Hunter Biden laptop case, and the government’s efforts to combat COVID-19 misinformation.
Sauer wrote that the court should be concerned about creating a precedent that could lead to global government censorship on social media. The power of the Western government to ban a social media platform that has more than 100 million users should at least be exercised with extreme care, and not reviewed on a “highly expedited” basis.
Sauer acknowledges that TikTok could pose national security threats while it is under ByteDance control. He also urges the Justices to be skeptical of national security officials who, according to him, have “repeatedly procured social media censorship of unfavorable content and viewpoints by combining pressure, coercion, and deception.”
Sauer wrote: “There’s a startling parallel between the D.C. Circuit deference to the national security officials who call for social media censorship and the well-documented recent history of federal officials being heavily involved in efforts to censor the speech of tens of millions of Americans on social media.”