Court of Appeals upholds TikTok ban, refuses to block law demanding its sale
"The Government acted solely to protect that freedom from a foreign adversary nation and to limit that adversary’s ability to gather data on people in the United States," the Court ruled.
TikTok
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that the law requiring TikTok to sever ties with its Chinese parent company ByteDance is constitutional. It has thus rejected the company's arguments that the rule violated the First Amendment, just days before the law goes into effect.
A three-judge panel ruled that the law does not violate the First Amendment. "We conclude the portions of the Act the petitioners have standing to challenge, that is the provisions concerning TikTok and its related entities, survive constitutional scrutiny," wrote Justice Douglas Ginsburg in the majority opinion.
"The First Amendment exists to protect free speech in the United States. Here the Government acted solely to protect that freedom from a foreign adversary nation and to limit that adversary’s ability to gather data on people in the United States. For these reasons the petitions are denied," the court wrote.
The law was passed in Congress earlier this year amid bipartisan concerns about national security and gave ByteDance until Jan. 19 to divest from TikTok or face a ban on U.S. networks and app stores.
But ByteDance appealed the ruling, arguing that divestiture was virtually impossible. The court found the ban on TikTok justified because of the government's national security concerns, even though the social network has long denied that Beijing could use it to spy on or manipulate Americans. Friday's ruling came after the appeals court heard oral arguments in September.
"Unless TikTok executes a qualified divestiture by January 19, 2025 — or the President grants a 90-day extension based upon progress towards a qualified divestiture — its platform will effectively be unavailable in the United States, at least for a time," the court held
If TikTok appeals and the courts uphold the law, it will be up to Donald Trump's Justice Department to enforce it. In this regard, according to The Wall Street Journal, TikTok's CEO, Shou Chew, would be looking to negotiate with the incoming Trump administration through Elon Musk, to whom he has reportedly turned for advice.
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