In a major development on Friday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld a law requiring TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to sell the popular app or face a ban in the United States. A panel of three judges unanimously ruled against TikTok’s petition for relief, solidifying a legal battle that now appears headed for the Supreme Court, reports National Review.
The appeals court ruled that the contested portions of the law withstand constitutional scrutiny, with Judge Douglas Ginsburg emphasizing the government’s national security rationale. “The First Amendment exists to protect free speech in the United States,” Ginsburg wrote. “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.”
U.S. officials, including leaders at the Department of Justice, have consistently raised alarms about TikTok’s relationship with the Chinese Communist Party, calling the app a national security threat of “immense depth and scale.”
TikTok argued that the law infringes on its First Amendment rights and that divesting from ByteDance is “not possible technologically, commercially, or legally” by the January 19 deadline. However, the court dismissed these arguments, leaving the app’s fate in jeopardy as the deadline looms.
Both the U.S. government and TikTok had pushed for a decision by Friday to allow sufficient time for potential appeals or alternative measures before the ban takes effect.
With the appeals court’s ruling, TikTok’s next move is likely to petition the Supreme Court. The justices could temporarily block the law’s implementation while they consider the case or allow the lower court’s decision to stand.
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