Court upholds US ban on TikTok unless it finds a buyer: NPR

After President Biden signed a law banning TikTok unless it splits from its China-based owner ByteDance, the viral video app sued to block it, saying the law violated the First Amendment rights of millions of Americans.

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Drew Angerer/Getty Images/Getty Images North America

A federal appeals court upheld the decision on Friday a law banning TikTok nationwide unless the viral video app was sold by its China-based parent company, rejecting TikTok’s claim that the crackdown violates the free speech rights of millions of Americans.

In its ruling, the court said that both Congress and the president had “precisely” concluded, because of TikTok’s “vast reach,” that separation from China’s control is “essential to protect our national security.” .

In its opinion, the court wrote that the ownership of TikTok by a China-based company, ByeDance, poses a national security threat that goes beyond the free speech concerns raised by TikTok.

“The First Amendment is designed to protect free speech in the United States. Here, the government acted solely to protect that freedom from a foreign adversary state and to limit that adversary’s ability to collect data about people in the United States,” the court wrote.

Critics of the TikTok ban, including the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, were alarmed by the court’s decision.

“This is a deeply misguided decision that interprets important First Amendment precedents too narrowly and gives the government broad authority to restrict Americans’ access to information, ideas and media from abroad,” said Jameel Jaffer, the group’s executive director. “We hope that the appeal court ruling will not be the last word.”

The ruling from a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit gave the Biden administration a significant victory but puts TikTok on an uncertain path.

President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to save TikTok. What that means, however, could be assumed several different shapes.

Under the lawTikTok must be sold by its Beijing-based owner ByteDance by January 19 or face a nationwide ban. This period can be extended by 90 days if “significant progress” is made toward a sale. So one possibility could be that the entry into force is prevented and Trump tries to negotiate a deal for the app to be acquired by an American company or investor group.

China has opposed the forced sale of TikTok for years, but Chinese analysts say officials there may now try to put the app on the auction block to use trade talks with the new Trump administration as leverage. However, TikTok’s current position remains that TikTok is not for sale.

Trump may also declare that steps TikTok has taken to distance itself from ByteDance, including a plan called Project Texas that seals off Americans’ data from China, counts as a divestment. Trump could also order his attorney general not to enforce the law.

Banning TikTok isn’t as simple as flipping an “off” switch. The law targets app stores controlled by Apple and Google, forcing the tech giants to remove TikTok. And makes it illegal for web hosting companies to support TikTok.

Google and Apple have not said how they would respond to the law. And it’s unclear what exactly web hosting companies would do given Trump’s stated goal of saving the app amid a looming legal deadline.

But even if the law were enforced by a presidential administration, TikTok would slowly wither away. The 170 million American users wouldn’t stand by and watch the app disappear from their devices. Instead, software updates would no longer be passed on to the app. Over time, TikTok would become slow, buggy, and eventually unusable.

Trump, during his first term tried to put TikTok out of businesschanged his position in the election campaign, pointing out in a social media post that a TikTok ban would only boost Meta’s business. He criticized the company over his unproven belief that the social media company hurt him in the 2020 presidential election.

What could come next could be a lengthy appeal process. Either party can request that the DC Court of Appeals reconsider the case. From there, the Supreme Court can also be commissioned to review it.