TikTok set to be banned in the US after losing appeal bid
6 December 2024, 18:25
A law that could lead to a ban on TikTok in the United States has been upheld by a federal appeals court.
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The popular social media app could be banned as soon as January if the law succeeds.
The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that the law, which requires TikTok to break ties with its China-based parent company ByteDance or be banned by mid-January, is constitutional.
Both TikTok and ByteDance look set to appeal the decision and bring it to the Supreme Court.
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"The First Amendment exists to protect free speech in the United States," said the appeals court.
"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."
Meanwhile, President-elect Donald Trump, who tried to ban TikTok during his first term and whose Justice Department would have to enforce the law, said during the presidential campaign that he is now against a TikTok ban and would work to "save" the social media platform.
The law, signed by President Joe Biden in April, was the culmination of a years-long saga in Washington over the short-form video-sharing app, which the government sees as a national security threat due to its connections to China.
The US has said it is concerned about TikTok collecting vast amounts of user data, including sensitive information on viewing habits, 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's difficult to detect.
However, a significant portion of the government's information in the case has been redacted and hidden from the public as well as the two companies.
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.
