Appeals Court Upholds TikTok Ban: What to Know
On Friday, a federal appeals court upheld a ruling that could lead to Ban TikTok As early as next month.
U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit Rejected TikTok’s request Overturning the law, which originally required TikTok’s Chinese parent company ByteDance to sell the popular social media platform to a buyer deemed appropriate by U.S. officials by mid-January. TikTok has vowed to fight the law in court, claiming it violates its right to free speech.
In its ruling, the court acknowledged that the ban would require TikTok’s millions of users to “find alternative communication media,” but that the “hybrid commercial threat” China posed to U.S. national security was justified.
“The First Amendment exists to protect free speech in the United States. The government’s actions here were intended only to protect that freedom from a foreign adversary state and to limit that adversary’s ability to collect data on Americans,” the court wrote .
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In response to the appeals court’s ruling, TikTok said the ban will “suppress the voices of more than 170 million Americans in the United States and around the world on January 19, 2025.”
Lawmakers from both parties have long expressed concern that TikTok, which has more than 150 million U.S. users, could pose a threat to national security and could be used by the Chinese government to spy on Americans or spread disinformation to advance China’s agenda.
TikTok continues to deny the accusations. Before a congressional vote earlier this year, TikTok revives U.S. userscalling on them to urge their representatives on Capitol Hill to vote no. But the measure ultimately passed both houses of Congress by wide margins.
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TikTok is expected to appeal Friday’s ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court. The company could also get help from the incoming Trump administration. President-elect Donald Trump, who pushed for a ban during his first term, now says he no longer supports one.
“The Supreme Court has a long track record of protecting Americans’ right to free speech, and we hope they do the same on this important constitutional issue,” a TikTok spokesperson said in a statement Friday.
So what’s next for lawmakers and TikTok? Here’s what you need to know.
What role does the law play?
The law aims to force ByteDance to sell TikTok to a buyer approved by U.S. officials and guarantee that ByteDance can no longer access U.S. user data or control the TikTok algorithm that determines which videos U.S. users watch.
TikTok has nine months to comply, a January deadline before the government could require its app to be removed from U.S. app stores. The President can grant a 90-day extension.
President Joe Biden, who signed the bill setting out the requirements, will remain in office until Inauguration Day, January 20.
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What to do next?
After Trump initially called for a ban during his first term as president, explain In March, he told CNBC’s Squawk Box that while he still believed the app posed a threat to national security, he no longer believed the app should be banned, saying “a lot of little kids on TikTok wouldn’t have it if they didn’t have it.” will go crazy.”
Trump added that banning TikTok would only strengthen the power of Facebook, which he called the “enemy of the people.”
In September, Trump promised to “Learn about Douyin”, according to the Associated Press.
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Who is against TikTok ban?
Free speech and digital rights groups and some security experts have long opposed the idea of a ban, saying targeting TikTok alone would not solve broader problems with social media as a whole.
Instead, they argue that lawmakers would be better off passing a comprehensive digital privacy law that would protect Americans’ personal information by preventing all social media companies from collecting the information and selling it to data brokers.
