US TikTok Ban Pits Donald Trump Against Own Party Members

• The Supreme Court will hear an appeal from TikTok on Jan. 10.
• The looming U.S. TikTok ban has divided opinion between President-elect Donald Trump and his allies.
• Trump has called for a block to the ban, stating he has a “warm spot” for the application.

Donald Trump’s “warm” spot for TikTok may lead him to clash with his own party as the clock draws closer to the platform’s potential ban in the U.S.

The President-elect’s involvement in the debate has put all eyes on TikTok’s Supreme Court hearing on Friday, Jan. 10. At the hearing, the platform will make a last-ditch attempt to block the nationwide ban.

TikTok Prepares for Supreme Court Hearing

The court hearing marks the final chance for TikTok, ByteDance, and the U.S. government to plead their cases and potentially avoid the nationwide ban.

TikTok’s attempt at deploying an emergency injunction  to delay the Jan. 19 deadline was previously blocked by the high court.

It is not currently clear what the Supreme Court will decide, but experts have predicted the decision  could be made within a matter of days.

The hearing comes just days before Donald Trump, a new defender of TikTok, becomes President.

Donald Trump Against His Party

In December, the debate on TikTok’s ban became more complicated when President-elect Donald Trump and free speech activists called for a delay in the law.

“President Trump opposes banning TikTok in the United States at this juncture and seeks the ability to resolve the issues at hand through political means once he takes office,” Trump’s lawyer, John Sauer, wrote in a filing .

Nonetheless, the majority of Trump’s allies are in favor of passing the ban. Three justices appointed by Trump in his first term have pushed back the measure.

Republican attorney generals from 22 states have written to the court disagreeing  with TikTok’s arguments.

“Allowing TikTok to operate in the United States without severing its ties to the Chinese Communist Party exposes Americans to the risk of the Chinese Communist Party accessing and exploiting their data,” the court filing read.

TikTok Defends the Right to Stay

TikTok has repeatedly denied claims that it threatens America’s national security.

The ByteDance-owned platform, used by 170 million Americans, claims that the law is an attempt at restricting free speech in the country.

In the filing, ByteDance said if the law is allowed to stand, then Congress will have “free rein to ban any American from speaking simply by identifying some risk that the speech is influenced by a foreign entity.”

Donald Trump and TikTok’s Rocky Relationship

On Monday, Dec. 16, Trump said in a press conference that he had a “warm spot in my heart for TikTok ,” shortly after meeting with the platform’s CEO Shou Zi Chew at Mar-a-Lago.

The President-elect’s soft spot for the controversial application marks a significant reversal from 2020 when he attempted to block the application during his first term.

Trump claimed he had received billions of views on the social media platform during his presidential campaign.

Keeping the application alive will fit with Trump’s overall narrative of commending free speech in the U.S.

In December, free speech advocates told  the Supreme Court that the U.S. law against TikTok is similar to the censorship regimes put in place by the country’s authoritarian enemies.