The appeals court rejects TikTok’s attempt to postpone the ban

Washington – A federal appeals court on Friday rejected TikTok’s attempt to delay the entry into force of a law that would ban the popular short-video app next month unless its Chinese parent company sells its shares.

“Plaintiffs rely on their First Amendment rights to justify the interim statute. “As to these claims, this court has already unanimously concluded that the law, under heightened scrutiny, meets the requirements of the First Amendment,” the U.S. Court’s order said, citing appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

TikTok is expected to ask the Supreme Court for an opinion. However, it is unclear whether the court will agree to hear the case or make a decision before the law takes effect on January 19.

The law, passed by Congress in April as part of an aid package for foreign companies, gave TikTok nine months to cut ties with its parent company ByteDance or face rapid access to app stores and web hosting services in US President Biden lose signed the billwhich includes the possibility of a one-time 90-day delay granted by the President if a sale is underway by then.

But the Chinese government has vowed to block a possible sale of TikTok’s algorithm, which creates tailored content recommendations for each user. A new buyer would be forced to rebuild the algorithm that powers the app, something TikTok and ByteDance’s lawyers say isn’t feasible.

TikTok suffered another setback on December 6th when the appeals court heard rejected his attempt to repeal the lawand concluded that the U.S. government’s national security concerns about the Chinese government’s ability to use the app to spy on and surreptitiously influence Americans were “compelling” and “well-founded.”

TikTok and ByteDance then asked the Court of Appeal to temporarily block the law’s entry into force pending a review by the Supreme Court. A pause would also give the Trump administration time to act, the companies said in their Dec. 9 lawsuit. President-elect Donald Trump led an attempt to ban TikTok in his first term, but has since said he would “save” the app.

The law’s entry into force, even for a short period of time, would be harmful to the platform, the lawsuit says. TikTok estimated it could lose a third of its daily users in the U.S. within the first month of a shutdown. Approximately 170 million people in the United States use TikTok.

However, the Justice Department rejected the claim that TikTok would face “imminent harm” if the law was not suspended. In its response, it noted that Americans who have already downloaded the app would still be able to use it after January 19, although updates would no longer be available.

On Friday, the chairmen of the House China Committee sent letters to Google and Apple informing them that they were prepared to remove TikTok from their app stores by January 19.

Rep. John Moolenaar of Michigan, the committee’s Republican chairman, and Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois, the panel’s top Democrat, also sent a letter to TikTok urging the company to sell the app.

“Congress has acted decisively to defend the national security of the United States and protect American users of TikTok from the Chinese Communist Party. We urge TikTok to immediately conduct a qualified divestiture,” they wrote.