Communist Chinese government-tied TikTok just lost yet another frantic appeal to halt federal legislation that could kill its American market success.
The Chinese-owned app recently lost its case before a federal appeals court, which ruled that the ultimatum taking effect on Jan. 19 is constitutional and justified in light of the app’s national security risks. TikTok appealed to that same court for a hold on the ban while it readied itself to make its case before the U.S. Supreme Court. That last-ditch effort has failed.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit refused to halt the ban before its looming enforcement date, The Verge reported on Dec. 13. This deals a major blow to TikTok, which is under scrutiny for its foreign government ties. The Chinese government owns a board seat and a financial stake in TikTok’s parent company ByteDance, and ByteDance shares algorithm data with the Chinese Communist Party.
TikTok’s security risks have triggered efforts from the Canadian and American governments to ban the app in those countries. For instance, Yintao Yu, a former executive for ByteDance, alleged in a 2023 lawsuit that the CCP has backdoor access to TikTok user data. TikTok has a censorship track record as well. As of Sept. 2022, MRC revealed TikTok had “permanently banned” 11 pro-free speech organizations. In 2023, MRC ranked TikTok among the worst censors of the year for removing hundreds of thousands of videos related to the Hamas-Israel conflict. TikTok is even now bragging about its COVID-19 and election-related censorship as a reason for the Canadian government supposedly not to ban the app.
Despite the back-to-back legal defeats, TikTok is not giving up. According to Yahoo! News TikTok asked the Supreme Court to block the ultimatum legislation. The outlet noted that President-elect Donald Trump has expressed a willingness to hold off on a hard ban, which TikTok is using in its arguments. The social media platform insists that Trump may even consider reversing the ultimatum almost immediately. “It would not be in the interest of anyone — not the parties, the public, or the courts — for the act’s ban on TikTok to take effect only for the new administration to halt its enforcement hours, days, or even weeks later,” TikTok urged.
President-elect Trump on TikTok ban: "We'll take a look at TikTok. I have a warm spot in my heart for TikTok because I won youth by 34 points." pic.twitter.com/NNN0edUAqe
— CSPAN (@cspan) December 16, 2024
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