“An interim injunction is appropriate because it will give the incoming administration time to determine its position,” TikTok and ByteDance said, referencing President-elect Donald Trump’s recent statements supporting the platform. Trump is set to be inaugurated on Jan. 20, the day after ByteDance’s compliance deadline.
Congressional and National Security Concerns
The law, passed amid bipartisan fears of Chinese surveillance and content manipulation, applies to any platform designated by the president as a “foreign adversary-controlled application.” So far, only TikTok has been subjected to this label, a point the company cited in its legal challenge as evidence of discriminatory targeting.
“Neither Congress, the government nor the D.C. Circuit identified any evidentiary basis to declare that the ‘covert’ nature of any such risk could not be remedied through an express disclosure,” TikTok argued. It further claimed the national security concerns driving the law were speculative and unsupported by clear evidence.
Trump’s Shift on TikTok
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew met with Trump earlier this week in Florida, where the former president expressed openness to reconsidering the platform’s U.S. operations. “I have a warm spot in my heart for TikTok,” Trump said at a news conference, crediting the app with engaging younger voters during his campaign.
