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A federal appeals court has voted unanimously in favor of a law that could ban TikTok in the United States unless the social network divests of Chinese ownership.
The decision comes seven months after TikTok filed a lawsuit against the federal government over the ban. Friday’s appeals court ruling rejects TikTok’s claims that the law violates the US Constitution’s commitment to free speech and individual liberty.
“The First Amendment exists to protect freedom of expression in the United States,” the court’s opinion stated. “Here the government acted only to protect that freedom from a hostile foreign nation and to limit that adversary’s ability to collect data about people in the United States.”
TikTok responded to the ruling by signaling plans to appeal to the Supreme Court.
“The Supreme Court has a well-established historical record of protecting Americans’ right to free expression, and we expect they will do just that with respect to this important constitutional issue,” Michael Hughes, a TikTok spokesman, said in a statement to TechCrunch. “Unfortunately, the TikTok ban was designed and imposed based on inaccurate, flawed, and hypothetical information, resulting in outright censorship of the American people.”
President Biden signed the Sell or Ban Act in April, giving ByteDance until January 19 to sell the app or face a ban. The bill came after four years of US government allegations that TikTok’s ties to China pose a national security risk and that it discloses sensitive information about Americans to the Chinese government.
While the terms of the ban are set to take effect next month, this does not mean that the app will necessarily be removed from the iOS App Store and Google Play Store immediately, as ByteDance indicates it will take the case to the Supreme Court.
Additionally, President-elect Donald Trump’s return to office could change things if he chooses to intervene. During his election campaign, Trump promised voters that he would save the popular social media app if elected.
As Kellyanne Conway, Trump’s former advisor and campaign manager, recently said The Washington Post Trump “appreciates the breadth and reach of TikTok,” and that “there are many ways to hold China accountable outside of alienating 180 million American users every month.”
Although it was Trump who made calls to ban the app during his first term, he took a different approach during his 2024 campaign and is now concerned that banning TikTok will benefit Meta.
At ByteDance He said she wouldn’t do that Selling its US operations. Even if ByteDance wanted to sell the app, the Chinese government would likely block the sale because it would need to approve the transfer of TikTok’s algorithms. Additionally, TikTok argued in its lawsuit that a sale would be technologically impossible, as “millions of lines of software code” would have to be transferred to a new owner.
It wouldn’t be the first ban for TikTok, as the social network has been banned in several countries, including India, Senegal, Nepal, Afghanistan, Somalia and Iran.
This story has been updated to include a statement from TikTok.
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