US President-elect Donald Trump hinted that he might let the Chinese-owned app TikTok stay in the United States.
Speaking at an event hosted by the conservative organisation Turning Point USA in Phoenix, Arizona, on Sunday, Trump said that this popular video-sharing app may have helped reach some key voters in the presidential election and expressed the possibility of keeping the app around "for a little while."
We do go on TikTok, and we had a great response. We had billions and billions of views," the president-elect said, admitting that he was shown a chart that highlighted views he said his campaign had on the app.
The US Supreme Court agreed Wednesday to review a request from TikTok and its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to block a law that would require the sale of the popular video-sharing app by January 19 or face a ban on national security grounds, reports Xinhua news agency.
The nation’s top court is set to hear arguments on January 10 regarding whether the law unconstitutionally limits freedom of speech, in breach of the First Amendment.
The court issued its decision two days after TikTok's petition for an injunction of the law. TikTok argued that the possible ban would shut down one of America's most popular speech platforms a day before the presidential inauguration and "silence the speech of Applicants and the many Americans who use the platform to communicate about politics, commerce, arts, and other matters of public concern.
In April, US President Joe Biden signed the law which only grants ByteDance 270 days to sell TikTok based on unfounded national security concerns. If TikTok does not comply with the law, the app store operators, including Apple and Google, will be forced to remove TikTok from their platforms.
In May, TikTok sued the US government to block a potential ban that has gained much criticism.
In early December, the US Court of Appeals in Washington rejected TikTok's argument that the ban was unconstitutional.
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