TikTok, one of the world’s most widely used social networks, is now one step closer to having to shut down for good in the United States. On Friday three judges of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit unanimously upheld a new law, which could lead to the banning of the popular application owned by ByteDance, a Chinese company, on national security grounds.
The decision could be a death blow to the app in one of its most important markets. There are more than 170 million Americans, who use social on a daily basis. The law, signed into law in April, requires ByteDance to sell the app to a non-Chinese company by Jan. 19, under penalty of being banned in the United States.
TikTok, which has raised national security concerns among U.S. politicians since 2020 because of its ties to China, has said a sale is impossible, in part because it would be blocked by Beijing. Friday’s ruling effectively dismissed a First Amendment challenge filed by the company, which had argued that the ban imposed was an unconstitutional violation of free speech.
The judges disagreed with TikTok’s argument. They said the rule was “carefully crafted to deal with only control by a foreign adversary,” and that, “The government acted solely to protect that freedom from a foreign adversary nation and to limit that adversary’s ability to gather data on people in the United States”.
According to U.S. officials and intelligence, the Chinese government’s oversight of private companies would allow Beijing to use the app to retrieve sensitive information about U.S. citizens or to disseminate videos and other propaganda materials. However, despite the defeat in court, the Chinese company’s top management has no intention of giving up, and has already announced that it will appeal the case to the Supreme Court.
“The Supreme Court has a well-established history of protecting Americans’ right to free speech,” said Michael Hughes, spokesman for TikTok, calling the law in question ”a real censorship of the American people. However, Attorney General Merrick Garland was of a different opinion, calling the ruling “an important step in blocking the Chinese government from weaponizing TikTok.”
According to experts, the Supreme Court will eventually consider the matter, and rule around June. If the law is blocked, the matter will then go to the incoming administration, led by Donald Trump, who in recent months has been in favor of the social network. Nevertheless, it is unclear how the leader can save the application, based on the timing and language of the bill. A spokesman for his team said in November that he will “implement” a plan to protect TikTok, but provided few details about it.
In any case, the president-elect’s support for the app is not so obvious, especially given his anti-China stances.
A possible sale of TikTok faces major obstacles, financially, technically and politically. The social could cost more than $200 billion, and many potential buyers would face antitrust scrutiny. In addition, in August 2020 the Chinese government enacted export restrictions that would likely give Beijing the power to block a potential sale by ByteDance.
