A federal appeals court on Friday upheld a law that would ban TikTok nationwide if its Chinese owner doesn’t sell the popular social media app to an American company by Jan. 19, 2025.
In its unanimous ruling, a three-judge panel in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit wrote, “We recognize that this decision has significant implications for TikTok and its users.” If its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, does not divest from the platform, the court said it “will effectively be unavailable in the United States, at least for a time."
ByteDance, which petitioned the court to overturn the law, has signaled that it will appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court. “The Supreme Court has an established historical record of protecting Americans’ right to free speech, and we expect they will do just that on this important constitutional issue,” a company spokesperson said after the ruling was issued, according to Bloomberg.
A source close to TikTok confirmed to NBC News that the company will seek an injunction pending its appeal to the high court.
TikTok has been under scrutiny from U.S. lawmakers for years over concerns about data manipulation by the Chinese Communist Party. In April, President Joe Biden signed the law requiring ByteDance to divest from TikTok within a certain period or risk a ban on the app in the U.S.
TikTok sued over the new law, arguing that it infringes on the company’s First Amendment rights, and that ByteDance’s divestment would cause severe harm to TikTok. The company has also denied that it has or ever would share U.S. user data.
In Friday’s ruling, the judges acknowledged that millions of users would be affected if a ban goes into effect, but the ruling blamed the Chinese government for that consequence rather than the U.S., “which engaged with TikTok through a multi-year process in an effort to find an alternative solution.”
“The First Amendment exists to protect free speech in the United States,” the ruling said. “Here the Government acted solely to protect that freedom from a foreign adversary nation and to limit that adversary’s ability to gather data on people in the United States.”
U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland hailed the ruling in a statement from the Justice Department on Friday afternoon.
“Today’s decision is an important step in blocking the Chinese government from weaponizing TikTok to collect sensitive information about millions of Americans, to covertly manipulate the content delivered to American audiences, and to undermine our national security,” Garland said.
As it stands, the law is set to go into effect one day before President-elect Donald Trump is inaugurated. That deadline could be extended by 90 days if there is progress toward a sale.
Trump, whose executive order to ban TikTok in 2020 was quickly rescinded by Biden, has since indicated that he opposes a ban on the app. But it’s unclear what exactly he intends to do about the impending ban: When asked by The New York Times about Trump’s plans for the app, a spokesperson for his transition team, Karoline Leavitt, said Trump “will deliver” on his campaign promises.