A federal appeals court unanimously voted to uphold a bill that could ban TikTok in the United States unless the social network sells its Chinese ownership.
The decision comes seven months after TikTok filed a lawsuit against the federal government over the ban. The appeals court’s ruling Friday rejects TikTok’s argument that the law violates the U.S. Constitution’s promises of free speech and individual liberty.
“The First Amendment exists to protect free speech in the United States,” the court’s opinion reads. “Here, the government acted solely to protect freedoms from foreign adversaries and to limit those adversaries’ ability to collect data on American citizens.”
President Biden signed the Sell It or Ban it Act in April, requiring ByteDance to sell its app by January 19 or face being banned. The bill follows claims from the U.S. government that TikTok’s relationship with China poses a national security risk and exposes Americans’ sensitive information to the Chinese government.
The ban is set to take effect next month, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the apps will be removed from the iOS App Store and Google Play Store, as ByteDance and TikTok could take their cases to the Supreme Court.
Plus, if President-elect Donald Trump returns, things could change if he decides to intervene. During the campaign, Trump promised voters that he would save the popular social media app if elected.
Kellyanne Conway, a former Trump adviser and campaign manager, recently told the Washington Post that the president “appreciates the breadth and scope of TikTok” and that “beyond alienating 180 million American users each month, there is no way it would hold China accountable.” “There are many ways to do it,” he said.
Trump was the one who initiated the call to ban the app during his first term, but he took a different approach during the 2024 campaign and now fears that a TikTok ban will benefit Meta.
ByteDance said it would not sell its U.S. operations. Even if ByteDance wanted to sell the app, the Chinese government would likely block the sale because it would have to approve the transfer of the TikTok algorithm. TikTok argued in its lawsuit that a sale would be technically impossible because it would require transferring “millions of lines of software code” to a new owner.
This ban is not the first for TikTok, as the social network has been banned in numerous countries, including India, Senegal, Nepal, Afghanistan, Somalia, and Iran.
