The US Department of Justice (DOJ) asked the Supreme Court late on Jan 3 to reject President-elect Donald Trump's request to delay implementation of a law that would ban popular social media app TikTok or force its sale by Jan 19.
Last week, Trump filed a legal brief arguing he should have time after taking office on Jan 20 to pursue a "political resolution" to the issue. The court is set to hear arguments in the case on Jan 10.
The law, passed in April, requires TikTok's Chinese owner, ByteDance Ltd, to divest the platform's US assets or face a ban. TikTok did not immediately comment.
DOJ said in its filing that Trump's request could only be granted if ByteDance had established it was likely to succeed on the merits but the company had not done so.
TikTok on Jan 3 urged the Supreme Court to block the law on free-speech grounds under the First Amendment of the US Constitution. It said Congress had not sought to ban Chinese-owned apps like Shein or Temu, which strongly suggests "it targeted TikTok for its social-media content, not its data".
If the court does not block the law by Jan 19, new downloads of TikTok on Apple or Google stores would be banned but existing users could continue to access the app. Services would degrade over time and eventually stop working as companies will be barred from providing support.
Biden could extend the deadline by 90 days if he certifies ByteDance is making substantial progress toward a divestiture.
Trump's support for TikTok is a reversal from 2020, when he tried to block the app in the US and force its sale to American companies because of its Chinese ownership.
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