The U.S. Court of Appeals rejected the request by TikTok to stop the implementation of a law requiring the app to either be sold or face a ban. TikTok, the international version of China’s Douyin app, intends to escalate its appeal to the Supreme Court.
On December 9, ByteDance and TikTok requested an emergency ruling to be able to delay the implementation of the so-called “Sell or Ban” law. The appeals court denied that on December 13. A three-judge panel held that the law Protecting Americans from Foreign Hostile Control Act cannot violate the First Amendment; it further pointed out the fact that no previous similar cases could support the cause of TikTok to suspend law implementation while appealing to the Supreme Court.
The U.S. government claims that TikTok could be leveraged by China to collect information about American users or promote propaganda, thus posing an extreme national security threat. Therefore, the court has dismissed TikTok’s plea that the law violates the freedom of speech.
Consequences of the Ban
Following the verdict, TikTok reemphasized its plan to appeal. The company explained through a post on X, formerly Twitter, that an app ban would severely injure more than 170 million American users because their sole platform for free speech would be impacted. TikTok stated that all its U.S. operations are completely separate and are managed inside the United States by servers located at Oracle.
The “Sell or Ban” law, signed by President Biden in April, forces ByteDance to divest TikTok’s US assets by January 19, 2025, or face a nationwide ban. However, members of Congress are urging Apple and Google to prepare to remove TikTok from their app stores if compliance is not met. The U.S. Department of Justice maintains that TikTok’s ties to China continue to endanger national security, despite TikTok’s claims to the contrary.
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