Washington — On Friday, a federal appeals court maintained a statute that mandates the sale or prohibition of the well-known social media app TikTok in the United States.
The law, which mandates that TikTok sell its U.S. assets from its parent company, ByteDance, based in China, by January 19, 2025, or face a ban in the United States, was upheld by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. President Biden signed the measure in April, but TikTok had contested it, saying it was unconstitutional and violated the First Amendment.
According to the court’s judgment, the First Amendment is in place to safeguard free speech in the US. In this case, the government took action only to defend that freedom from an enemy country abroad and to restrict that adversary’s capacity to collect information about Americans.
ByteDance may be eligible for a one-time extension of up to 90 days from Biden, provided that it has made headway in selling its TikTok assets in the United States by the deadline of January 19. According to the court’s judgment, if not, TikTok will essentially be unavailable in the US, at least temporarily.
According to Reuters, the Supreme Court or the entire appeals court panel may hear an appeal of the unanimous decision made by U.S. appeals court judges Douglas Ginsburg, Neomi Rao, and Sri Srinivasan.
For years, the U.S. Justice Department has expressed concerns about TikTok’s collection of user data from Americans that may eventually be provided to the Chinese government. In the United States, TikTok has over 170 million users.
According to the court’s ruling, millions of TikTok users would have to look for other ways to communicate. The U.S. government, which worked with TikTok for several years to find a different solution, is not responsible for that burden; rather, it is the result of the hybrid commercial threat posed by the People’s Republic of China to American national security.
Stories by
Zach Mentz
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