Attorney General Merrick Garland urged the Supreme Court to deny President-elect Donald Trump’s request to delay the implementation of a law that would force TikTok’s Chinese ownership to divest from the social media platform.
The impending law would make TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, divest from the company’s U.S. assets by Jan. 19 or face a ban. Congress passed the law, which President Biden signed in April, with bipartisan support over concerns about TikTok’s data collection practices and potential access by the Chinese Communist Party.
TikTok and its users have fought the law, arguing that shuttering the platform in the U.S. could infringe on First Amendment rights and have financial ramifications for those who use the app to boost their businesses.
Mr. Trump’s lawyer, D. John Sauer, filed a brief in the high court last week that contended that the court should place an injunction against the law so the president-elect could “resolve the issues at hand through political means.”
Mr. Sauer argued that the act of Congress could run afoul of free speech rights and that Mr. Trump should be allowed to weigh in. If the court doesn’t halt or delay the law, it would go into effect one day before Inauguration Day.
Mr. Garland shot back in a Friday night filing that the Chinese government has a track record of using private companies, like TikTok, to amass data on American consumers, and because of that “no one can seriously dispute that the [People’s Republic of China’s] control of TikTok through ByteDance represents a grave threat to national security.”
He added, “TikTok’s collection of reams of sensitive data about 170 million Americans and their contacts makes it a powerful tool for espionage, and TikTok’s role as a key channel of communication makes it a potent weapon for covert influence operations.
“So long as TikTok remains subject to the PRC’s control, the PRC could use those weapons against the United States at any time — for example, at a pivotal moment during a crisis.”
TikTok has lost in lower courts, and the Supreme Court has refused to enforce an injunction to halt the law from taking effect until it hears from all parties on Jan. 10.
Mr. Trump opposed the social media platform during his first term in office. Since then, he has joined the app and has amassed nearly 15 million followers.
Mr. Sauer said, “President Trump alone possesses the consummate dealmaking expertise, the electoral mandate, and the political will to negotiate a resolution to save the platform while addressing the national security concerns expressed by the government — concerns which President Trump himself has acknowledged.”
Mr. Garland reiterated that the nature of the law has nothing to do with barring free speech and falls in line with the nation’s “tradition of barring or restricting foreign control of communications channels and other critical infrastructure.”
— Alex Swoyer contributed to this story.
• Alex Miller can be reached at amiller@washingtontimes.com.