WASHINGTON – TikTok content creator Tiffany Cianci is doing all she can to persuade President-elect Donald Trump to save the popular social media app, which the government calls a national security risk.

Ms Cianci live-streamed outside the US Supreme Court on Jan 10, where justices were hearing arguments on whether to uphold the ban. She called on other TikTokers and their followers to join the campaign to flood Trump with messages and support TikTok across social media.

A new law requires the app’s China-based owner ByteDance to sell its US operations by Jan 19 or else shut down.

“We don’t need the Supreme Court to save TikTok,” Ms 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.

The handful of creators who joined her in front of the courthouse were a small fraction of those watching online, where Ms Cianci estimated 180,000 people tuned into her TikTok broadcast.

TikTok, Ms Cianci and other users employed a similar campaign strategy in 2024, when they flooded congressional offices with phone calls to get them to abandon the divest-or-ban legislation.

While that effort failed and angered some lawmakers, Trump may be more receptive because he has publicly called for the ban to be delayed so he can work out a settlement.

In Trump they hope

In December, Trump said