The US Court of Appeals unanimously upheld President Biden’s law requiring ByteDance to sell TikTok or be banned next month.
The DC Court of Appeals (Federal Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, one of 13 federal appeals courts in the US) on December 6 rejected TikTok’s lawsuit claiming that President Biden’s law violates the First Amendment. .
Opinion written by Justice Douglas Ginsburg: “The First Amendment exists to protect freedom of speech in the United States. Here, the Government acted only to protect that freedom from a rival nation.” outside and limit that adversary’s ability to collect data about people in the US.”
In more detail, the appeals court noted that it was the result of cooperation between Republican and Democratic presidents, as “part of a broader effort to combat a national security threat.” “.
Attorney General Merrick Garland called the decision “an important step in preventing the Chinese government from weaponizing TikTok.”
The Chinese Embassy in Washington called the law “a blatant act of commercial robbery”, warning that the US “needs to handle this case carefully to avoid damaging mutual trust between two countries and the development of bilateral relations.”
The ruling comes amid growing trade tensions between the world’s two largest economies, after President Joe Biden’s administration imposed new restrictions on China and North Korea’s chip industries. Beijing responded by completely banning the export of gallium, germanium and antimony to the US.
TikTok and ByteDance – the other plaintiff in the lawsuit – plan to appeal to the Supreme Court, although it is unclear whether the court will accept the case. “The Supreme Court has a historic record of protecting Americans’ free speech rights, and we hope they will on this important constitutional issue,” TikTok spokesman Michael Hughes said in a statement. dad.
“While the news is disappointing, rest assured that we will continue to fight to protect free speech on our platform,” TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew said in an email. for staff.
The law, signed by President Joe Biden in April, culminates a years-long conversation in Washington about the short video-sharing app, which the government considers a national security threat due to its ties to China. .
Under Chinese ownership, TikTok poses a threat because it has access to massive personal data of Americans, the Justice Department said, accusing the country of being able to secretly manipulate the information Americans use. used through TikTok.
Spokesman Michael Hughes said the ban was founded on inaccurate, flawed and hypothetical information, leading to complete censorship of the American people. According to him, if not stopped, the law “will silence the voices of more than 170 million Americans in the US and around the world by January 19, 2025”.
After the appellate court’s ruling, some users and content creators on TIkTok are concerned and confused. Many people began to doubt the viability of this platform and prepared for the worst case scenario. Meanwhile, others wait for more information.
Chris Mowrey, who has 470,000 followers on TikTok, realized for the first time that the channel he built could disappear. “I think there hasn’t been enough attention paid to how economically damaging this will be for small businesses and content creators,” he said.
Advertisers say brands will still maintain a presence on TikTok, while ensuring they have a plan B. “Advertisers have not yet pulled out of TikTok, although some are building contingency plans for the possibility ability to reallocate investment if there is a ban,” said Jason Lee, Executive Vice President of Brand Safety at media company Horizon Media.
TikTok Shop consultant Sarah Jannetti said her clients aren’t worried about the possibility of the platform being banned and won’t change their business “until they see something more concrete.”
Erik Huberman, CEO of marketing firm Hawke Media, said Meta, owner of Facebook and Instagram, would capture the majority of TikTok’s advertising revenue if the app was banned, followed by Alphabet’s YouTube. Both have introduced short-form video features over the past few years to compete with TikTok.