US appeals court upholds TikTok law forcing its sale
Al Jazeera
The ruling now increases the possibility of an unprecedented ban in just six weeks of TikTok in the US.
A United States federal appeals court has upheld a law requiring Chinese-based ByteDance to divest its popular short video app TikTok in the US by early next year or face a ban.
The decision is a complete win for the Department of Justice and opponents of the app and a devastating blow to ByteDance. The ruling now increases the possibility of an unprecedented ban in just six weeks on a social media app used by 170 million Americans.
The ruling is likely to be appealed to the Supreme Court or full appeals court panel by ByteDance and TikTok.
The appeals court said the law “was the culmination of extensive, bipartisan action by the Congress and by successive presidents. It was carefully crafted to deal only with control by a foreign adversary, and it was part of a broader effort to counter a well-substantiated national security threat posed by the PRC [People’s Republic of China].”
US appeals court Judges Sri Srinivasan, Neomi Rao and Douglas Ginsburg considered the legal challenges brought by TikTok and users against the law that gives ByteDance until January 19 to sell or divest TikTok’s US assets or face a ban.
