TikTok sale-or-ban law upheld by federal appeals court
A law requiring TikTok’s Chinese parent ByteDance to sell the app by Jan. 19 or face a total US ban was upheld in US appeals court on Friday – setting up a potential Supreme Court showdown in the coming weeks.
A three-judge panel in Washington rejected the argument by TikTok’s lawyers that the law, which received overwhelming bipartisan support in Congress and was signed by President Biden in April, was unconstitutional and a violation of free speech.
“The multi-year efforts of both political branches to investigate the national security risks posed by the TikTok platform, and to consider potential remedies proposed by TikTok, weigh heavily in favor of the Act,” the court said in its ruling.
Congress pursued the sale-or-ban bill due to concerns that TikTok is a national security risk that provided China with a spying and propaganda tool on US soil. TikTok has vehemently denied the allegations.
The president has the option of extending the divestment window by 90 days if he is confident that sufficient process toward a sale has been made.
For now, the law is slated to take place one day before President-elect Trump takes office.
Trump – a longtime critic of TikTok – has recently softened his rhetoric against the app and said he is against a ban. However, it’s unclear if he would be able to intervene on its behalf.
TikTok is widely expected to challenge the decision – either with an appeal to the Supreme Court or a full appeals court panel.
TikTok claims that selling the app is not possible within the bill’s limited timeline.
The Chinese government has signaled it opposes any forced sale of TikTok or its underlying technology.
“What we have finally done is found a path forward with respect to regulating tech in a responsible, thoughtful way,” said Joel Thayer, a DC-based tech policy lawyer and outspoken TikTok critic.
“We are disallowing the Chinese government from using our legal mechanisms against us and using our First Amendment against us,” Thayer added. “And it’s a reminder to all of our foreign adversaries that the First Amendment is a bulwark for our rights, not theirs.”
As The Post reported, TikTok faced sharp questioning from the three-panel judge at a hearing in October.
Legal experts said the judges seemed unconvinced by key elements of TikTok’s argument against the law.
Justice Department attorneys argued that TikTok poses an unacceptable national security risk under ByteDance’s stewardship – though much of the evidence it has cited on that point remains redacted.
During the October hearing, the feds warned that China could alter TikTok’s algorithm for nefarious purposes.
“It’s farcical to suggest that with this two billion lines of code – 40 times as big as the entire Windows operating system, changed 1,000 times every day – that somehow we’re going to detect that they’ve changed it,” DOJ attorney Daniel Tenny said at the time.
In filings in July, the feds alleged that TikTok was able to gather sensitive data related to issues like gun control and abortion from its users and cited fears that Beijing could weaponize the app.
With Post wires