TikTok was hit Friday in Washington, D.C., as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld a law that requires China-based parent company ByteDance to sell the popular video-sharing social platform by January 19 or see the application banned in the US
The likely next step for TikTok and ByteDance is an appeal to the full Court of Appeals or the U.S. Supreme Court.
Current President Joe Biden has the authority to grant a 90-day extension, after which the ball will return to President-elect Donald Trump’s court, who takes office on January 20.
It was Trump who floated the idea of banning TikTok, telling reporters aboard Air Force One in July 2020 that he was concerned about his Chinese property.
However, after Biden took office, he signed a decree in June 2021 revoking his predecessor’s order to ban TikTok, messaging app WeChat and eight other communications and fintech software apps with ties to China.
The goodwill of the Biden administration did not last, as the House passed bipartisan bill in March, forcing the surrender or sale, with the Senate following suit in April.
Eight TikTok creators entered the fray in Mayfiling a lawsuit claiming the potential ban violated their First Amendment rights.
And both sides presented their case before the Court of Appeal in September.
The Justice Department has argued that TikTok poses a national security threat because of the personal data it collects from users and the potential for China to exploit that data, while TikTok and ByteDance have countered that the law is unconstitutional and asserted that it never has and never will. share US user data.
Justices Douglas Ginsburg, Neomi Rao, and Sri Srinivasan presided over the case, and Ginsburg wrote her opinion, as reported by Reutersthat the law “was carefully crafted to address only control by a foreign adversary, and was part of a broader effort to counter a well-founded threat to national security posed by the People’s Republic of China” .
Srinivasan acknowledged the scale of TikTok’s potential ban in a concurring opinion, as Reuters reports, writing: “170 million Americans use TikTok to create and view all kinds of free speech and interact with each other. others and with the world. And yet, in part precisely because of the platform’s broad reach, Congress and several presidents have determined that removing it from (China’s) control is essential to protect our national security. Because the record shows that Congress’s decision was thoughtful, consistent with long-standing regulatory practice, and lacking an institutional goal to suppress particular messages or ideas, we are unable to discount it. »
