TikTok content creator Tiffany Cianci is urging President-elect Donald Trump to save the app amid government claims it poses a national security risk.
Cianci live-streamed outside the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday as justices debated whether to uphold a TikTok ban.
She urged fellow TikTokers and their followers to campaign online, pressuring President-elect Donald Trump to save the app.
A new law mandates TikTok’s China-based owner, ByteDance Ltd., to sell its U.S. operations by January 19 or face a shutdown.
“We don’t need the Supreme Court to save TikTok,” Cianci said. “Right now we have a president that is about to be inaugurated,” she said, urging her followers to put pressure on Trump by posting comments on his X social media account.
A small group of creators joined Cianci outside the courthouse, but her TikTok live stream drew a much larger audience, with an estimated 180,000 viewers tuning in online.
Cianci and other TikTok users previously used a similar strategy, flooding congressional offices with calls to oppose the divest-or-ban legislation.
Although that effort failed and frustrated some lawmakers, President-elect Donald Trump may be more receptive, as he has publicly called for delaying the ban to negotiate a settlement.
Last month, Donald Trump expressed a “warm spot” for TikTok, crediting it with helping him gain support from younger voters during the election.
He met with TikTok CEO Shou Chew and sent a letter to the Supreme Court requesting a pause on the enforcement of the law until he assumes office on January 20.
“This is a promise Trump made and it is a promise he used to get a large number of young people to vote for him,” Cianci said in an interview a day before the Supreme Court hearing. “We are calling on him to deliver immediately.”
Cianci’s 223,000 followers are paying attention, with comments on her live feed like, “I hope Trump is there today,” and “Trump can do this.”
However, during the two-hour Supreme Court arguments, Trump’s name was barely mentioned.
The government’s lawyer noted uncertainty over whether the president-elect could extend the divestiture deadline once in office.
On Friday, the Supreme Court justices indicated they would likely uphold the law, rejecting TikTok’s request to block it.
Bloomberg Intelligence analysts estimate TikTok has only a 20% chance of succeeding in its legal battle.
