Chinese-owned app TikTok lost its main bid to halt a ban at the D.C. Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.
The federal law takes effect on Jan. 19, effectively banning the Communist Chinese government-tied app unless its parent company ByteDance agrees to sell TikTok to a U.S. buyer. The circuit court ruled in favor of the Justice Department, declaring the law constitutional and rejecting TikTok’s effort to stop the law from taking effect, according to The Washington Post.
TikTok had argued to the court that the looming ban violates the First Amendment, but the court ultimately denied that claim, according to The Post. Instead, the court ruled, “The Government has offered persuasive evidence demonstrating that the Act is narrowly tailored to protect national security.” The Post noted that TikTok will probably appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court.
The judges did however throw a bone to TikTok by claiming that the ban didn’t “implicate the First Amendment at all,” arguing it could place a “disproportionate burden on TikTok, an entity engaged in expressive activity.” It is unclear if this could leave an opening for TikTok to win its case at the Supreme Court.
The Post claimed that unnamed sources stated that incoming president Donald Trump will likely halt the ban, possibly opting to push the sale to an American company instead. This echoes comments that Trump made opposing a hard ban during his 2024 campaign.
TikTok has been deemed a national security risk due to the potential for Americans’ data to be shared with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which requires all tech companies in China—including ByteDance—to share data with the government. Yintao Yu, a former executive for ByteDance, alleged in a 2023 lawsuit that the CCP has backdoor access to TikTok user data. A group of former TikTok employees also accused the app of having close operational ties with ByteDance earlier this year.
ByteDance reportedly censors content to please the CCP, using a detection tool, according to Forbes.
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