Super-popular social network TikTok still faces a January 2025 ban, as it did not receive a reprieve from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, reports The Wall Street Journal.
In May, TikTok parent company ByteDance filed a lawsuit against the U.S. government to put a stop to an April bill forcing ByteDance to sell TikTok to a company outside of China or face a ban in the United States. The bill required ByteDance to sell TikTok to a company outside of China within a nine-month period, and if the sale doesn’t happen, TikTok won’t be able to be distributed in the United States.
TikTok claimed that the bill was unconstitutional because it infringes on free speech, but the court rejected that claim.
Although the ban is scheduled to go in effect in January, TikTok will likely appeal the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court, seeking an emergency stay, while the Supreme Court will decide whether to hear the case.
U.S. lawmakers had hoped to force ByteDance to sell the TikTok social app to a company outside of China, due to concerns that the Chinese government could gain access to data about users located in the United States. ByteDance would not legally be able to refuse such a request from China officials. There have also been concerns that China would use TikTok to spread political propaganda.
ByteDance called the act, which carried the name, “The Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act,” “obviously unconstitutional,” and said that there is no path for TikTok to continue operating in the United States. The company said a 270-day timeline was “not possible,” and even if it were, the company claimed that the act is still an “extraordinary and unconstitutional assertion of power.”
U.S. app stores would be required to remove the app, nor provide updates to the app, to avoid being charged with breaking the law. Internet hosting services would also be blocked from offering U.S. users no way to download it. TikTok users will, however, be able to keep using the app on their devices, as long as it continues to function.
Things could get complicated, as China would also need to approve the sale, and the Chinese government said last year that it would “firmly oppose” a forced sale.
While there are a limited number of companies with enough resources to be able to afford to purchase TikTok, some firms, including Google and Meta would likely not be allowed to purchase it, due to antitrust concerns.
A report from late April claimed that ByteDance will not sell TikTok or divest itself from the platform, as selling the platform would require ByteDance to also sell the algorithms that power both TikTok and the company’s other businesses.
TikTok represents only a small piece of ByteDance’s operations. Shutting the social media platform down in the US would have a limited impact on ByteDance, and it would be able to retain its algorithms.