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TikTok is inching closer to being banned in the United States after a new law that could lead to the banning was unanimously upheld by a panel of federal judges.
With 170 million Americans using TikTok, this decision will sound the death knell for the app in one of its biggest markets.
The judges in the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit denied TikTok’s petition to overturn the law.
According to the law, in order for TikTok to operate in the US, the Chinese owner of the app – ByteDance is required to sell the app to a non-Chinese company by January. This happens amid rising concerns regarding TikTok being a national security concern under ByteDance.
Lawmakers and officials have said that the Chinese government would retrieve and use sensitive information from the app about Americans and spread propaganda, although there’s no public evidence of the same occurring. It is also interesting to note that the Chinese government has banned Facebook and Youtube in China and that TikTok is not allowed there.
The app has kept free speech central to the argument and has sparked concern from content creators and influencers whose income depends on it. The American Civil Liberties Union said the decision is “a major blow to freedom of expression online” setting dangerous precedents for other platforms under foreign ownership.
TikTok will move to the Supreme Court and expects a different outcome on the same, although there is no guarantee the apex court will take it up.
“The Supreme Court has an established historical record of protecting Americans’ right to free speech, and we expect they will do just that on this important constitutional issue,” Michael Hughes, spokesperson for TikTok, said. He also said the ban is an “outright censorship of the American people and that its “based upon inaccurate, flawed and hypothetical information”.
Attorney General Merrick Garland says the ruling is “an important step in blocking the Chinese government from weaponising TikTok.”
Moreover, President-elect Donald Trump has repeatedly supported the app but the law will get into effect a day before his inauguration. According to the New York Times, some experts speculate that Trump could ask his new attorney general to refrain from enforcing it, but that in turn could put Apple and Google in a delicate situation with the law delineating that companies distributing TikTok in their stores will be penalised.
In any case, Trump had said in September, “For all of those who want to save TikTok in America, vote for Trump” and said that a TikTok ban would only help Meta and Mark Zuckerberg, who he considers “an enemy of the people”. But considering his hawkish stance on China, anything is possible.
Trump currently has 14.6M followers on TikTok.
