Donald Trump, who won the US presidential election, called on the Supreme Court to delay the implementation of the ban on the Chinese social network TikTok so that he could resolve the dispute after he took office, follows from the petition.
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In April, current US President Joe Biden signed a law ordering the transfer of the TikTok social network to the management of an American company under the threat of a ban on work in the United States. The measure could go into effect as soon as January 19, 2025, while Trump officially takes office one day later. Trump met with TikTok CEO Shaw Zi last week, according to media reports.
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“President Trump is taking no position on the merits of the dispute. Instead, he is calling on the court to delay the law’s effective date to allow his new administration to seek a ruling that would prevent a nationwide ban on TikTok, thereby respecting the rights of tens of millions of Americans.” provided for by the First Amendment, as well as addressing national security concerns,” the petition states.
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In the petition, Trump noted that he uses TikTok, where he has nearly 15 million followers, to communicate with his constituents, so he considers the platform “a unique medium for freedom of expression, including major political speech.” He noted that Vice President Kamala Harris, despite the ban initiated by her administration, used this social network in her election campaign.
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TikTok is an application for creating and viewing short videos, owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. It was released in 2018. The social network is under scrutiny from US authorities, who fear the Chinese government could demand user data from it or use the app to spread propaganda. TikTok has repeatedly disagreed with these concerns. TikTok has about 170 million users in the United States.