USA, TikTok loses appeal: sale or it will be banned. But ByteDance appeals to the Supreme Court
A three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that Congress has the power to act against TikTok to protect US interests
2' min read
Key points
2' min read
It will probably all be decided, once in the White House, by Donald Trump. But in the meantime, for TikTok, the road in the United States is an uphill one. A US federal appeals court has in fact ruled that the short video social network, owned by Chinese giant ByteDance, can be banned in the US on national security grounds, upholding a federal law that requires the popular social media app to abandon its Chinese ownership in order to continue operating.
In essence, a three-judge panel of the District of Columbia Circuit Court ruled that Congress has the power to act against TikTok to protect US interests.
The ruling - reports the Wall Street Journal - rejected a First Amendment challenge filed by the Chinese company and many of its most famous users, who argued that the ban was an unconstitutional violation of free speech.
"The First Amendment exists to protect free speech in the United States," Justice Douglas Ginsburg wrote. "In this case, the government acted solely to protect that freedom from an adversary foreign nation and to limit the latter's ability to collect data on persons in the United States."
The 'sell or ban' bill, signed by President Biden in April, was passed with bipartisan support after lawmakers received confidential briefings from the intelligence community on China's ability to use TikTok to surveil Americans and spread Chinese propaganda.
