Appeals court upholds TikTok ban law

(The Hill) -- A federal appeals court on Friday upheld a law requiring TikTok’s Chinese parent company to sell the popular app or face a U.S. ban. 

A three-judge panel with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit found that the law does not violate the First Amendment, as TikTok has argued. The decision brings a ban one step closer to reality, with just over a month until the law goes into effect. 

"The First Amendment exists to protect free speech in the United States. Here the Government acted solely to protect that freedom from a foreign adversary nation and to limit that adversary’s ability to gather data on people in the United States. For these reasons the petitions are denied," the court wrote.

The divest-or-ban law moved rapidly through Congress earlier this year amid widespread bipartisan national security concerns over the app’s China-based parent company ByteDance. It was signed by President Joe Biden in April. 

The law gives ByteDance about nine months — until Jan. 19 — to divest from TikTok or face a ban on U.S. networks and app stores. However, Biden could also opt to give the company a 90-day extension. 

TikTok and ByteDance sued to block the law in May, alongside several content creators, arguing that divestment was practically impossible. As a result, the law effectively bans TikTok nationwide, which they contend is unconstitutional. 

However, the Biden administration has argued that TikTok can be used by the Chinese government to “achieve its overarching objective to undermine American interests.”

The court sided with the Biden administration, finding that the "significant" impacts of the TikTok ban are justified by the government's national security concerns.

"Unless TikTok executes a qualified divestiture by January 19, 2025 — or the President grants a 90-day extension based upon progress towards a qualified divestiture — its platform will effectively be unavailable in the United States, at least for a time," the court wrote in Friday's opinion.

"Consequently, TikTok’s millions of users will need to find alternative media of communication," it continued. "That burden is attributable to the PRC’s hybrid commercial threat to U.S. national security, not to the U.S. Government, which engaged with TikTok through a multi-year process in an effort to find an alternative solution."  

Despite the administration’s victory, the future of the divest-or-ban law remains uncertain with President-elect Donald Trump set to take office. 

After launching similar efforts to ban TikTok during his first term, Trump has changed his stance on the app, arguing that a ban would empower Facebook and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.  

On the campaign trail in September, the former president urged Americans to vote for him to “save TikTok.” 

With a new Trump term on the horizon, TikTok CEO Shou Chew has reportedly reached out to tech mogul and close Trump ally Elon Musk for insight into the incoming administration, according to The Wall Street Journal.