federal government court of appeals On Friday, it cited national security concerns in supporting legislation that would require it to be based in China. part time dance Popular social media app TikTok must go on sale next month or face a de facto ban in the United States.
A unanimous decision by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., was overruled. TikTok argues that the law is unconstitutional and violates the First Amendment rights of the 170 million Americans who use the app.
TikTok announced late Friday that it would ask the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the appeals court’s ruling.
If ByteDance fails to sell TikTok by January 19th, the law will require app store companies to: apple and googleinternet hosting providers will stop supporting TikTok, effectively banning the app.
President Joe Biden signed the law in April after lawmakers from both parties raised concerns about TikTok’s alleged ties to China’s Communist government. Rep. Troy Balderson (R-Ohio), March; called TikTok is a “surveillance tool used by the Chinese Communist Party to monitor American citizens and collect highly personal data.”
President-elect Donald Trump has not said whether he will implement the ban when he takes office next month.
In a majority opinion Friday, the appeals court found that the U.S. government “presented persuasive evidence that the Divestment Act was designed strictly to protect national security.” did.
The opinion pointed out that TikTok “has never outright denied that it manipulated content at the direction of the People’s Republic of China.”
“On the merits, we reject each of the appellants’ constitutional claims,” Justice Douglas Ginsburg wrote in an opinion.
“As I will explain, the portions of the law that are properly submitted to this court do not violate the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, nor do they violate the Fifth Amendment’s guarantee of equal protection of the laws.” “This law prohibits the taking of private property for free in violation of the Fifth Amendment,” the opinion states.
Ginsburg noted that the legislation is the result of “broad bipartisan action by Congress and past presidents.”
“It was carefully crafted to solely address domination by a foreign adversary and was part of a broader effort to counter the well-documented national security threat posed by China,” the judge said.
TikTok said in a statement about the decision published on I look forward to it.”
“Unfortunately, the TikTok ban was conceived and enforced based on inaccurate and flawed assumptions, resulting in blatant censorship of the American people,” the company said. “The TikTok ban will silence the voices of more than 170 million Americans here in the United States and around the world on January 19, 2025, unless stopped.”
Patrick Toomey, deputy director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s National Security Project, denounced Friday’s ruling, saying it “sets a flawed and dangerous precedent and calls for the government to not be able to silence Americans’ speech online.” “It gives them too much power.”
“The TikTok ban is a blatant violation of the First Amendment rights of millions of Americans who use this app to express themselves and communicate with people around the world,” Toomey said. said.. “Governments cannot shut down entire communications platforms without causing extremely serious and imminent harm, but there is no evidence of that here.”
TikTok said it would ask the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case, but there is no automatic right to appeal to that court.
A person close to the company, who was not authorized to speak publicly, told NBC News that the company plans to seek an injunction pending a potential Supreme Court filing.
in september post “I’m not doing anything with TikTok, but they’re going to shut it down,” Trump wrote on his social media app Truth Social.
“So if you like TikTok, go out and vote for Trump,” the now president-elect wrote at the time.
Trump transition press secretary Caroline Leavitt told CNBC in November that the president-elect would “fulfill” his campaign promises.
CNBC has reached out to Trump’s transition team for comment on Friday’s ruling and his plans for TikTok.
Trump’s position on TikTok may be influenced by other factors.
The president-elect tried to ban the app during his first administration.
However, his rhetoric on TikTok started to change after he spoke out. met in february and billionaire Jeff Yass, a major Republican donor and major investor in ByteDance.
Mr. Yas’ trading company, Susquehanna International Group, owns 15% of ByteDance, but Mr. Yas maintains a 7% stake in ByteDance, worth about $21 billion, according to NBC. CNBC reported. reported In March. So was that month. reported Mr. Yass was a co-owner of the business that merged with Mr. Trump’s Truth Social parent company, he said.
