Trump Made a U-Turn!

Trump Made a U-Turn!
US President-elect Donald Trump has changed his stance, asking the Supreme Court to find a political solution and delay the implementation of a law that would completely ban Chinese company TikTok in the US.
According to VOA, US President-elect Donald Trump filed a brief on December 27 asking the US Supreme Court to temporarily suspend the law banning TikTok.
Under the law, TikTok will be banned from operating in the US unless its Chinese parent company ByteDance sells it to a US company. The deadline set by the law was January 20, the day before Trump was inaugurated.
In the letter, Trump’s legal team said that the TikTok issue was a difficult and new issue and that the court should extend the deadline even further and give them a chance to find a political solution.
NGOs in the US File Opposition to TikTok
In addition, a coalition of human rights organizations, including the Uyghur Movement (CFU), the American Uyghur Association, the Uyghur Human Rights Project, the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong, Hong Kong Watch, the International Campaign for Tibet, and the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, have joined forces with Thayer, P.L.L.C. to file an amicus curiae (friend-of-the-court) brief in the Supreme Court case TikTok, Inc., et al. v. Merrick B. Garland.
The case represents a new phase in the legal battle over the Protecting Americans from Foreign Hostile Controlled Applications Act, also known as the “TikTok Act.” The law, signed by President Joe Biden on April 24, 2024, requires apps owned by affiliates of designated foreign enemies, such as TikTok’s parent company ByteDance—which is controlled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)—to divest from U.S. operations. The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected TikTok’s lawsuit arguing that the forced divestment violated its First Amendment rights. TikTok appealed the decision, and the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case.
The CFU had previously led a coalition of 39 groups in a joint letter to the Senate supporting the legislation. The CFU and other supporters also supported the legislation for the first time in a friend-of-the-court opinion filed in the D.C. Circuit. Both efforts highlighted the dangers of CCP-affiliated apps like TikTok facilitating surveillance and transnational repression, particularly against human rights activists. As the Supreme Court hearing approaches, the coalition has regrouped to support the legislation.
The friend-of-the-court opinion emphasizes that TikTok is not just a social media app — it is a tool in the CCP’s global strategy to gain access to sensitive user data, silence dissent, target activists through surveillance, and suppress free speech. The law provides key protections to prevent CCP-controlled platforms from endangering U.S. national security or the safety of those who call attention to the Chinese government’s human rights abuses and genocide.