In a unanimous decision, a federal appeals court in the US has rejected TikTok’s lawsuit to challenge a law that could force it to cut its ties with its Chinese parent company ByteDance or face a complete ban in the US by mid-January 2025.
The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled on Friday that the government’s actions are justified on national security grounds, dealing a blow to TikTok‘s ongoing legal battle to remain operational in the US.
A three-judge panel emphasized that the government’s main motivation is protecting American free speech from potential foreign interference.
“The First Amendment exists to protect free speech in the United States. 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,” the court concluded in its ruling, which can be read here.
“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.”
US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
The ruling also addresses the complexity of TikTok’s corporate structure, ownership, and potential national security risks.
ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, is incorporated in the Cayman Islands but maintains significant operations in China, according to the ruling. Founded by Chinese national Yiming Zhang, who retains 21% ownership, the company operates multiple platforms globally, including Douyin, TikTok’s Chinese counterpart.
“TikTok Ltd. is a wholly owned subsidiary of ByteDance and is also incorporated abroad. TikTok Ltd. operates the TikTok platform globally, except in China. The Government refers to TikTok entities that operate the platform outside the United States as ‘TikTok Global’ and its US operations as ‘TikTok US,’” the court said.
The court’s ruling highlighted how Chinese law requires companies “to cooperate with state-directed cybersecurity supervision and inspection.” In their decision, the judges cited “compelling evidence that the Chinese government may use Chinese information technology firms as vectors of espionage and sabotage.”
The court acknowledged the significant impact on TikTok’s 170 million American users. However, it emphasized that the burden is attributable to the “PRC’s hybrid commercial threat to US national security.”
If TikTok fails to secure a buyer by January 19, 2025, the platform will effectively become unavailable in the US. TikTok’s parent company ByteDance had earlier asserted that it has no plans to sell the platform.
“Foreign media reports that ByteDance is exploring the sale of TikTok are untrue,” ByteDance said earlier this year in a statement on Toutiao, a news aggregation app that it owns.
In response to the latest development, TikTok said, “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.”
TikTok argued in its latest statement that the ban, signed by US President Joe Biden into law earlier this year, “was conceived and pushed through based upon inaccurate, flawed and hypothetical information, resulting in outright censorship of the American people.”
“The TikTok ban, unless stopped, will silence the voices of over 170 million Americans here in the US and around the world on January 19th, 2025.”
tikTok
“The TikTok ban, unless stopped, will silence the voices of over 170 million Americans here in the US and around the world on January 19th, 2025.”
Amid the legal uncertainty, President-elect Donald Trump, who originally proposed a TikTok ban during his previous administration, might be willing to grant the platform a reprieve.
News outlets reported in November, citing sources, that Trump is expected to take measures to retain the video streaming platform’s presence in the US when he returns to office.
“For all of those who want to save TikTok in America, vote for Trump. The other side is closing it up, but I’m now a big star on TikTok,” Trump said in a video posted on his own social media platform, Truth Social, in early September. The president-elect’s TikTok account has garnered nearly 15 million followers to date.
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