TikTok has lost its bid to strike down a law that could result in the platform being banned in the United States.
A US federal appeals court upheld a law on Friday requiring Chinese-based ByteDance to divest its popular short video app TikTok in the United States by early next year or face a ban.
The judges found that the law does not “contravene the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States,” nor does it “violate the Fifth Amendment guarantee of equal protection of the laws.”
Judges Sri Srinivasan, Neomi Rao, and Douglas Ginsburg considered the legal challenges brought by TikTok and its users against the law. The ruling means that the platform is one step closer to facing a US ban — unless ByteDance divest or sell TikTok’s US assets before 19 January 2025.
However, the ruling could be appealed to the Supreme Court or to a full appeals court panel.
President Joe Biden, who signed the law in April, can grant a one-time extension of up to 90 days, but only if ByteDance has made significant progress in finding a buyer.
The Department of Justice argues that under Chinese ownership, TikTok poses a serious national security threat due to its access to vast amounts of personal data from Americans, asserting that China could covertly manipulate information consumed by US users through TikTok.
TikTok and ByteDance argue that the law is unconstitutional and violates Americans’ free speech rights, describing it as “a radical departure from this country’s tradition of championing an open internet.”
The law prohibits app stores like Apple and Alphabet’s Google from offering TikTok, and bars internet hosting services from supporting TikTok, unless ByteDance divests TikTok by the deadline.
President-elect Donald Trump, who unsuccessfully tried to ban TikTok during his first term in 2020, stated before the November elections that he would not allow a ban on TikTok, which is used by 170 million Americans.
