TikTok ban upheld by US court, arguments dismissed
Beijing-based ByteDance must sell the video-sharing app by early next year after the ruling that safeguarding national security does not hurt free speech.
TikTok faces a ban in the United States if its Chinese owner refuses to sell the video-sharing app by January 19, the day before the inauguration of president-elect Donald Trump.
The US federal appeals court on Friday upheld a law requiring ByteDance, the Beijing-based owner of TikTok, to sell its operations in the country. A panel of federal judges refused TikTok’s request to overturn the law that was signed by President Joe Biden in April.
“The multi-year efforts of both political branches to investigate the national security risks posed by the TikTok platform, and to consider potential remedies proposed by TikTok, weigh heavily in favour of the act,” the court said in its decision.
It dismissed TikTok’s arguments that the order would infringe Americans’ free speech rights and said the law had been “carefully crafted to deal only with control by a foreign adversary, and it was part of a broader effort to counter a well-substantiated national security threat posed by the PRC (People’s Republic of China).”
The Justice Department argues that TikTok poses a security threat because its access to the data of 170 million American users gives China the power to manipulate the information they consume. The Chinese government could order it to share the data of American users, US officials say.
TikTok and ByteDance have claimed the proposed ban is unconstitutional. TikTok has denied that it has or ever would share US user data.
ByteDance and TikTok are expected to appeal to the Supreme Court or full appeals court panel. Biden will have to decide whether to grant a 90-day extension of the January deadline.
Trump, who tried to ban TikTok during his first term in 2020, suggested in March that he no longer supported a ban.
“If you get rid of TikTok, Facebook and Zuckerschmuck will double their business,” he wrote.
The Times
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