TikTok Ban Upheld By US Federal Appeals Court

The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has upheld a lower court’s ban on TikTok, forcing it to cut ties with its Chinese parent business, ByteDance or face suspension.

TikTok and ByteDance, the second plaintiff in the complaint, are now expected to appeal to the US Supreme Court, but it is uncertain whether the court would hear the case.

“The Supreme Court has an established historical record of protecting an individual’s right to free expression, and we expect them to do so on this critical constitutional issue,” TikTok spokesperson Michael Hughes told AP.

“Unfortunately, the TikTok ban was conceived and pushed through based upon inaccurate, flawed and hypothetical information, resulting in outright censorship of the American people,”

Hughes stated. Unless stopped, he claimed, the act “will silence the voices of over 170 million Americans here in the US and around the world on January 19th, 2025.”

Trump TikTok Ban

Though the issue is in court, President-elect Donald Trump would likely hand the two firms a lifeline. Trump attempted a TikTok ban during his first term but stated during the presidential campaign that he is now opposed.

President Joe Biden signed the measure in April, capping a years-long saga in Washington over the short-form video-sharing app. Due to its ties to China, the government views it as a national security danger.

“Today’s decision is an important step in blocking the Chinese government from weaponising TikTok to collect sensitive information about millions of Americans, to covertly manipulate the content delivered to American audiences, and to undermine our national security,” Merrick Garland, the attorney general, said in a statement.

On Friday, a federal appeals court panel upheld a statute that might result in a TikTok ban in the United States within a few months. Here’s what you should know.

The United States has expressed worry that TikTok is gathering huge amounts of user data, particularly sensitive information about watching patterns, which may fall into the hands of the Chinese government through pressure.

Officials have also cautioned that the proprietary algorithm that drives what users view on the app is susceptible to manipulation by Chinese authorities, who can use it to alter information on the platform in difficult-to-detect ways. The European Union raised similar concerns on Friday as it probed intelligence, suggesting Russia may have abused the platform to influence Romania’s elections.

TikTok, which sued the government over the law in May, has long disputed that Beijing could use it to spy on or control Americans.

TikTok’s counsel has correctly stated that the US has not given proof demonstrating that the business gave over user data to the Chinese government or changed material for Beijing’s benefit in the US.

They have also contended that the statute is based on future threats, which the Department of Justice has emphasized, citing unnamed actions the two businesses allegedly took in the past in response to Chinese government demands.

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