It’s a new year, but the battle over TikTok rages on. On Friday the US Department of Justice (DOJ) urged the Supreme Court to reject President-elect Donald Trump’s recent request to pause the impending ban on TikTok.
What did the DOJ say?
The Department of Justice (DOJ), reported by NBC News, claims that Trump’s request doesn’t address the First Amendment argument. This TikTok’s legal argment that banning the app compromises US citizens’ First Amendment right to free speech.
The DOJ is also arguing that ByteDance has failed to prove that it’s likely to win the case. This, the DOJ added, is necessary for an injunction to be granted.
According to NBC News the DOJ has weighed into the First Amendment argument itself in the filing. The DOJ’s filing states, “the Act does not warrant heightened First Amendment scrutiny because it does not impose a burden on any cognizable First Amendment rights of ByteDance, its U.S. subsidiary, or TikTok’s users.”
Trump’s filing, which was written by his lawyer D. John Sauer, said that the incoming President wanted to delay the ban in order to have the “opportunity to pursue a political resolution of the questions at issue in the case.” Trump is set to be inaugurated on Jan. 20, one day after TikTok’s ban.
Trump met with TikTok CEO Shou Chew shortly after filing his most recent request. The President-elect’s stance on TikTok has softened considerably in recent months. Trumps enthusiasm for the app grew after he was shown how much it helped him in the last election.
