A federal appeals court has upheld a law forcing Chinese-based ByteDance to sell the social media app
A US federal appeals court has upheld a law requiring Chinese company ByteDance to divest its popular short video platform TikTok in the US by early next year or face a ban.
According to the ruling issued on Friday by the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit, the platform will be prohibited starting on January 19, 2025 if its parent company fails to find a non-Chinese buyer and sell it. After the deadline, app stores and internet services in the country are expected to face fines for hosting TikTok if it is not sold.
The law forcing TikTok to find a new owner within months or be banned was adopted in April. It addresses concerns voiced by national security officials in Washington, who cited the alleged influence of the Chinese government through the popular platform.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry said at the time that a ban would be “an act of bullying” that would backfire on the US. The ministry’s spokesperson at the time, Wang Wenbin, claimed that Washington has never stopped going after TikTok despite the fact that the authorities failed to find any evidence regarding how the platform is a threat to national security.
The latest court order came in response to TikTok’s argument that the law is unconstitutional and infringes on the free speech of more than 170 million Americans who use the app, and unfairly singled out the platform.
Commenting on the ruling, TikTok said in a statement said the ban “was conceived and pushed through based upon inaccurate, flawed and hypothetical information, resulting in outright censorship of the American people.”
TikTok has announced plans to ask the US Supreme Court to overturn the appeals court decision. FT reported on Saturday, citing a person familiar with the matter, that CEO Shou Zi Chew wrote in an emailed memo to staff that the next step would be to “seek an injunction of the ban, pending review.”
“While today’s news is disappointing, rest assured we will continue the fight to protect free speech on our platform,” the CEO reportedly said.
At the time the law was adopted, ByteDance indicated that it had no plans to sell the platform.
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