Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
A federal appeals court panel on Friday unanimously upheld a law that could lead to a ban on TikTok in a few short months, handing a resounding defeat to the popular social media platform as it fights for its survival in the U.S.
A TikTok sign is displayed on top of their building in Culver City, Calif., on Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024. (AP Photo\/Richard Vogel)
FILE – A man carries a Free TikTok sign in front of the courthouse where the hush-money trial of Donald Trump was underway on April 15, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo\/Ted Shaffrey, File)
A neon TikTok logo hangs in the lobby of the TikTok office building in Culver City, Calif., on Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024. (AP Photo\/Richard Vogel)
FILE – Devotees of TikTok gather at the Capitol in Washington, as the House passed a bill that would lead to a nationwide ban of the popular video app if its China-based owner doesn\u2019t sell, on March 13, 2024. (AP Photo\/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
A TikTok sign is displayed on top of their building in Culver City, Calif., on Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024. (AP Photo\/Richard Vogel)
A federal appeals court panel on Friday unanimously upheld a law that could lead to a ban on TikTok in a few short months, handing a resounding defeat to the popular social media platform as it fights for its survival in the U.S.
A TikTok sign is displayed on top of their building in Culver City, Calif., on Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024. (AP Photo\/Richard Vogel)
A TikTok sign is displayed on top of their building in Culver City, Calif., on Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024. (AP Photo\/Richard Vogel)
FILE – A man carries a Free TikTok sign in front of the courthouse where the hush-money trial of Donald Trump was underway on April 15, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo\/Ted Shaffrey, File)
FILE – A man carries a Free TikTok sign in front of the courthouse where the hush-money trial of Donald Trump was underway on April 15, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo\/Ted Shaffrey, File)
A neon TikTok logo hangs in the lobby of the TikTok office building in Culver City, Calif., on Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024. (AP Photo\/Richard Vogel)
A neon TikTok logo hangs in the lobby of the TikTok office building in Culver City, Calif., on Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024. (AP Photo\/Richard Vogel)
FILE – Devotees of TikTok gather at the Capitol in Washington, as the House passed a bill that would lead to a nationwide ban of the popular video app if its China-based owner doesn\u2019t sell, on March 13, 2024. (AP Photo\/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
FILE – Devotees of TikTok gather at the Capitol in Washington, as the House passed a bill that would lead to a nationwide ban of the popular video app if its China-based owner doesn\u2019t sell, on March 13, 2024. (AP Photo\/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
A TikTok sign is displayed on top of their building in Culver City, Calif., on Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024. (AP Photo\/Richard Vogel)
A TikTok sign is displayed on top of their building in Culver City, Calif., on Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024. (AP Photo\/Richard Vogel)
A federal appeals court panel on Friday unanimously upheld a law that could lead to a ban on TikTok as soon as next month, handing a resounding defeat to the popular social media platform as it fights for its survival in the U.S.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit denied TikTok\u2019s petition to overturn the law \u2014 which requires TikTok to break ties with its China-based parent company ByteDance or be banned by mid-January \u2014 and rebuffed the company\u2019s challenge of the statute, which it argued had ran afoul of the First Amendment.
\u201cThe First Amendment exists to protect free speech in the United States,\u201d said the court\u2019s opinion, which was written by Judge Douglas Ginsburg. \u201cHere the Government acted solely to protect that freedom from a foreign adversary nation and to limit that adversary\u2019s ability to gather data on people in the United States.\u201d
TikTok and ByteDance \u2014 another plaintiff in the lawsuit \u2014 are expected to appeal to the Supreme Court, though its unclear whether the court will take up the case.
\u201cThe Supreme Court has an established historical record of protecting Americans\u2019 right to free speech, and we expect they will do just that on this important constitutional issue,\u201d TikTok spokesperson Michael Hughes said in a statement.
\u201cUnfortunately, the TikTok ban was conceived and pushed through based upon inaccurate, flawed and hypothetical information, resulting in outright censorship of the American people,\u201d Hughes said. Unless stopped, he argued the statute \u201cwill silence the voices of over 170 million Americans here in the US and around the world on January 19th, 2025.\u201d<\/p>\n
Though the case is squarely in the court system, it\u2019s also possible the two companies might be thrown some sort of a lifeline by President-elect Donald Trump, who tried to ban TikTok during his first term but said during the presidential campaign that he is now against such action<\/a><\/span>.
\u201cHe wants to save TikTok,\u201d Rep. Michael Waltz, Trump\u2019s pick for national security adviser, said Friday during an interview on Fox Business.
The law, signed by President Joe Biden in April, was the culmination of a yearslong saga in Washington<\/a><\/span> over the short-form video-sharing app, which the government sees as a national security threat<\/a><\/span> due to its connections to China.
A federal appeals court panel on Friday upheld a law that could lead to a ban on TikTok in a few months in the U.S. Here\u2019s what to know.
The U.S. has said it\u2019s concerned about TikTok collecting vast swaths of user data, including sensitive information on viewing habits<\/a><\/span>, that could fall into the hands of the Chinese government through coercion. Officials have also warned the proprietary algorithm that fuels what users see on the app is vulnerable to manipulation by Chinese authorities, who can use it to shape content on the platform in a way that\u2019s difficult to detect. The European Union on Friday expressed similar concerns<\/a><\/span> as it investigates intelligence that suggests Russia possibly abused the platform to influence the elections in Romania.
\u201cToday\u2019s decision is an important step in blocking the Chinese government from weaponizing TikTok,\u201d Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement Friday.
TikTok, which sued the government over the law in May, has long denied it could be used by Beijing to spy on or manipulate Americans. Its attorneys have accurately pointed out that the U.S. hasn\u2019t provided evidence to show that the company handed over user data to the Chinese government, or manipulated content for Beijing\u2019s benefit in the U.S. They have also argued the law is predicated on future risks, which the Department of Justice has emphasized pointing in part to unspecified action it claims the two companies have taken in the past due to demands from the Chinese government.
Friday\u2019s ruling came after the appeals court panel, composed of two Republicans and one Democrat appointed judges, heard oral arguments<\/a><\/span> in September.
In the hearing, which lasted more than two hours, the panel appeared to grapple with how TikTok\u2019s foreign ownership affects its rights under the Constitution and how far the government could go to curtail potential influence from abroad on a foreign-owned platform. On Friday, all three denied TikTok\u2019s petition.
In the court\u2019s ruling, Ginsburg, a Republican appointee, rejected TikTok\u2019s main legal arguments against the law, including that the statute was an unlawful bill of attainder, or a taking of property in violation of the Fifth Amendment. He also said the law did not violate the First Amendment because the government is not looking to \u201csuppress content or require a certain mix of content\u201d on TikTok.
\u201cContent on the platform could in principle remain unchanged after divestiture, and people in the United States would remain free to read and share as much PRC propaganda (or any other content) as they desire on TikTok or any other platform of their choosing,\u201d Ginsburg wrote, using the abbreviation for the People\u2019s Republic of China.
Judge Sri Srinivasan, the chief judge on the court, issued a concurring opinion.
TikTok\u2019s lawsuit was consolidated with a second legal challenge brought by several content creators \u2014 for which the company is covering legal costs \u2014 as well as a third one filed on behalf of conservative creators who work with a nonprofit called BASED Politics Inc. Other organizations, including the Knight First Amendment Institute, had also filed amicus briefs supporting TikTok.
\u201cThis is a deeply misguided ruling that reads important First Amendment precedents too narrowly and gives the government sweeping power to restrict Americans\u2019 access to information, ideas, and media from abroad,\u201d said Jameel Jaffer, the executive director of the organization. \u201cWe hope that the appeals court\u2019s ruling won\u2019t be the last word.\u201d
Meanwhile, on Capitol Hill, lawmakers who had pushed for the legislation celebrated the court\u2019s ruling.
\u201cI am optimistic that President Trump will facilitate an American takeover of TikTok to allow its continued use in the United States and I look forward to welcoming the app in America under new ownership,\u201d said Republican Rep. John Moolenaar of Michigan, chairman of the House Select Committee on China.
Democratic Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, who co-authored the law, said \u201cit\u2019s time for ByteDance to accept\u201d the law.
To assuage concerns about the company\u2019s owners, TikTok says it has invested more than $2 billion to bolster protections around U.S. user data.
The company has also argued the government\u2019s broader concerns could have been resolved in a draft agreement it provided<\/a><\/span> the Biden administration more than two years ago during talks between the two sides. It has blamed the government for walking away from further negotiations on the agreement, which the Justice Department argues is insufficient.
Attorneys for the two companies have claimed it\u2019s impossible to divest the platform commercially and technologically. They also say any sale of TikTok without the coveted algorithm \u2014 the platform\u2019s secret sauce that Chinese authorities would likely block under any divesture plan \u2014 would turn the U.S. version of TikTok into an island disconnected from other global content.
Still, some investors, including Trump\u2019s former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin<\/a><\/span> and billionaire Frank McCourt, have expressed interest in purchasing the platform. Both men said earlier this year that they were launching a consortium to purchase TikTok\u2019s U.S. business.
This week, a spokesperson for McCourt\u2019s Project Liberty initiative, which aims to protect online privacy, said unnamed participants in their bid have made informal commitments of more than $20 billion in capital.
Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n