BYTEDANCE, TIKTOK SEEK TEMPORARY HALT TO US CRACKDOWN LAW

The US Department of Justice said the appeals court should quickly deny the request “to maximize the time available for the Supreme Court’s consideration” of petitions from ByteDance and TikTok.

TikTok asked the appeals court to decide on the request by December 16.

__________________________________________________________________________

https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaAtNxX8fewmiFmN7N22

__________________________________________________________________________

Trump ‘wants to save TikTok’

The decision – unless the Supreme Court reverses it – puts TikTok’s fate in the hands initially of President Joe Biden on whether to grant a 90-day extension of the January 19 deadline to force a sale and then of Trump, who takes office on January 20. But it is not clear whether ByteDance could meet the heavy burden to show it had made significant progress toward a divestiture needed to trigger the extension.

Trump, who unsuccessfully tried to ban TikTok during his first term in 2020, said before the November presidential election he would not allow the ban on TikTok.

Trump’s incoming national security adviser, Mike Waltz, told Fox Business Network on Friday that Trump “wants to save TikTok” and that “we absolutely need to allow the American people to have access to that app but we have to protect our data as well”.

The decision upholds the law that gives the US government sweeping powers to ban other foreign-owned apps that could raise concerns about the collection of Americans’ data. In 2020, Trump also tried to ban WeChat, owned by the Chinese company Tencent, but was blocked by the courts. 

TikTok warned on Monday that the court ruling would interrupt “services for tens of millions of TikTok users outside the United States”. The app said hundreds of US service providers that enable maintenance, distribution and updating would not be able to provide support for the TikTok platform starting January 19.

The company has turned to Noel Francisco, a veteran US Supreme Court lawyer, ahead of its Supreme Court appeal.

Francisco, who served as US solicitor general during Republican President-elect Donald Trump’s first administration, will represent TikTok along with his partner Hashim Mooppan at law firm Jones Day, court papers show.

As the Justice Department’s top Supreme Court advocate from 2017 to 2020, Francisco defended Trump’s ban on people from six predominantly Muslim countries entering the US. He has argued more than 20 cases before the high court.