A federal appellate court On Friday he cited national security concerns as he upheld a law that would have required it to be based in China ByteDance to sell the popular social media app TikTok next month or face an effective ban in the United States.
The unanimous decision by a three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals in Washington, DC, was overturned. TikTok argues that the law is unconstitutional and violates the First Amendment rights of the 170 million Americans who use the app.
TikTok said later on Friday that it will ask the US Supreme Court to overturn the appeals court's decision.
If ByteDance does not sell TikTok by January 19, the law would require app store companies, such as Apple and Googleand internet hosting providers to stop supporting TikTok, which would effectively ban the app.
President Joe Biden signed the law in April after members of Congress from both parties raised concerns about TikTok's alleged ties to China's Communist government. Rep. Troy Balderson, R-Ohio, in March, called TikTok “is a surveillance tool used by the Chinese Communist Party to exploit Americans and harvest very personal data. “
President-elect Donald Trump he has not said whether he will implement the ban when he takes office next month.
The appeals court found in its majority opinion on Friday that the US government had “offered persuasive evidence showing that the “delegation law'' is designed in part to protect national security.”
The opinion noted that TikTok “never denies that it has ever handled content in accordance with the guidelines” of the People's Republic of China.
“On the merits, we reject each petitioner's constitutional claims,” Justice Douglas Ginsburg wrote in his opinion.
“As we shall explain, the portions of the Act properly before 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; constitutes an illegal bill. or to work on private property without compensation in violation of the Fifth Amendment,” the opinion said.
Ginsburg noted that the law was the result of “extensive, bipartisan action by Congress and successive presidents. “
“It was carefully designed to deal solely with the control of a foreign adversary, and was part of a broader effort to combat a well-substantiated national security threat from the PRC,” the judge wrote.
In a statement about the decision posted on X, TikTok said, “The Supreme Court has an established history of protecting Americans' right to free speech, and we expect them to do just that.” on this important constitutional issue.
“Unfortunately, the TikTok ban was designed and pushed through based on inaccurate, flawed and hypothetical information, resulting in total censorship of the American people,” the company said. stop, silencing the voices of more than 170 million Americans here in the US and around the world on January 19, 2025.”
Patrick Toomey, deputy director of the American Civil Liberties Union's National Security Project, criticized Friday's ruling, saying it “sets a dangerous and dangerous precedent, one that gives the government far too much power to silence Americans' speech online.” “
“Banning TikTok 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.. “The government can't shut down an entire communications platform unless it does serious harm, and there's no evidence of that here.”
Although TikTok said it will ask the US Supreme Court to hear the case, there is no automatic right of appeal to that court.
A source close to the company, who was not authorized to speak publicly, told NBC News that it would seek an injunction pending a planned petition to the Supreme Court.
In September mail on his own social media app, Truth Social, Trump wrote that he was “not doing anything with TikTok, but the other side is going to shut it down.” “
“So if you like TikTok, go out and vote for Trump,” the now-president wrote at the time.
Trump's transition spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told CNBC in November that the president will be “selective” on his campaign promises.
CNBC has asked Trump's transition team for comment on Friday's ruling and his plans for TikTok.
Other factors may influence Trump's position on TikTok.
The president-elect tried to ban the app during his first administration.
But his rhetoric on TikTok started to turn after him met in February along with billionaire Jeff Yass, a Republican megadonor and major investor in Bytedance.
Yass' trading company Susquehanna International Group owns 15% in ByteDance while Yass maintains 7% in the company, equivalent to about $21 billion, NBC and CNBC reported in March. There was that month too reported that Yass was a part owner of the business that merged with the parent company of Trump's Truth Social.
