TikTok’s Potential U.S. Ban Upheld

On Friday, three federal appeal court judges unanimously upheld a provision that would ban the Chinese-owned social media platform TikTok in the United States. TikTok hopes to take the case before the Supreme Court where the company believes it will receive a favorable ruling. 

“Unfortunately, the TikTok ban was conceived and pushed through based on inaccurate, flawed, and hypothetical information, resulting in the outright censorship of the American people,” TikTok said in a statement. “The TikTok ban, unless stopped, will silence the voices of over 170 million Americans here in the U.S. and around the world on January 19th, 2025.” 

The provision was part of a $95 billion national security package signed by President Biden in April. It gave ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company based in Beijing, nine months to sell the platform to a company in the United States. If ByteDance fails to sell TikTok, Americans will be prohibited from using the platform. (READ MORE: The Beginning of the End of TikTok?) 

“The First Amendment exists to protect free speech in the United States,” the court concluded. “Here 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.” 

National security concerns about TikTok were raised initially when China-based ByteDance acquired TikTok — formerly known as Musical.ly — in 2018. 

In 2019, then-President Trump declared a national emergency due to foreign adversaries “creating and exploiting vulnerabilities in information and communications technology and services,” leading to an investigation on ByteDance. ByteDance failed to “mitigate its national security concerns,” prompting Trump to order the company to divest assets or property supporting TikTok’s operation in the United States. 

Under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), Trump used his powers to prevent certain transactions with ByteDance and its affiliates in 2020. However, Trump’s actions were litigated for “exceeding his authority under that law.” 

President Biden issued a new IEEPA that listed China as a “foreign adversary,” noting that their access to American data presented a “significant risk.” TikTok was later banned from government devices. 

TikTok submitted several submissions to U.S. officials that proposed different remedies to address the Executive branch’s concerns. Its recent proposal suggested creating a “new entity” influenced by ByteDance that would manage TikTok and limit the level of data ByteDance would have access information to on U.S. users. 

The federal law, currently challenged by TikTok, requires the company to divest its stakes in nine months but also includes a possible three-month extension if it can present proof of a pending sale. 

Trump’s attempts to ban TikTok during his first term make the platform’s future in America uncertain. However, in September, Trump called to “save TikTok” in a Truth Social post, indicating potential support for the social media app.

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