A US federal appeals court has upheld a law requiring TikTok to sever ties with its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, moving the popular social media platform closer to a potential ban in the United States.
The ruling by the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit affirms legislation signed by President Joe Biden in April, which mandated ByteDance to divest from TikTok within a year or face removal from US app stores. The deadline for compliance is set for January 19, 2025.
The court rejected TikTok’s claim that the law violates First Amendment rights, stating that the legislation aims to safeguard American freedoms and prevent data collection by foreign adversaries. “The First Amendment exists to protect free speech in the United States,” wrote Judge Douglas Ginsburg in the court’s opinion. “Here the government acted solely to protect that freedom from a foreign adversary nation.”
TikTok, which has nearly 170 million US users, plans to appeal the decision to the Supreme Court. The company argues that the law is based on flawed assumptions and amounts to censorship, threatening the voices of millions of Americans. “The Supreme Court has a strong history of defending free speech, and we trust they will do so again on this crucial constitutional issue,” a TikTok spokesperson stated.
The platform also contends that separating from ByteDance is commercially, technologically, and legally unfeasible. Meanwhile, President Biden could grant a 90-day extension to delay the sale, but it remains uncertain if ByteDance can demonstrate sufficient progress or if China’s government would approve the divestiture.
President-elect Donald Trump, set to take office on January 20, has expressed opposition to banning TikTok, a shift from his previous attempts during his first term. The platform’s fate now hinges on political negotiations and potential Supreme Court intervention.
