A law requiring TikTok's Chinese parent company ByteDance to sell its app by January 19 or face a total ban in the United States was upheld by a U.S. Court of Appeals on Friday and will be considered by the Supreme Court in the coming weeks. A showdown is scheduled.
A three-judge Washington panel says the law, signed by President Biden in April with overwhelming bipartisan support in Congress, is unconstitutional and a violation of free speech rights, TikTok lawyers say. was rejected.
“Years of efforts by both political branches to examine the national security risks posed by the TikTok platform and consider potential remedies proposed by TikTok weigh heavily in support of the legislation. ” the court said in its judgment.
Congress pursued the ban over concerns that TikTok is a national security risk that provides China with tools for espionage and propaganda on U.S. soil. TikTok vehemently denied the allegations.
TikTok condemned the appeals court's ruling in a statement and said it would immediately take the case to the Supreme Court.
“The Supreme Court has a historic record of protecting Americans' right to free speech, and we look forward to doing the same on this important constitutional issue,” TikTok said in a statement. Ta.
“Unfortunately, the TikTok ban was conceived and enforced based on inaccurate and flawed hypothetical information, resulting in blatant censorship of the American people,” the statement added. “The TikTok ban will silence the voices of more than 170 million Americans here in the United States and around the world on January 19, 2025, unless stopped.”
The president has the option to extend the sale period by 90 days if he is satisfied that a sufficient process has been followed.
The law is currently scheduled to go into effect the day before President-elect Trump takes office.
Trump, a longtime critic of TikTok, has recently softened his rhetoric about the app, saying he opposes banning it. However, it is unclear whether he will be able to intervene on its behalf.
TikTok argues that it is impossible to sell the app within the bill's limited time frame.
The Chinese government has expressed opposition to any forced sale of TikTok or its underlying technology.
“What we've ultimately accomplished is finding a way forward in terms of regulating technology in a responsible and thoughtful way,” said D.C.-based technology policy lawyer and outspoken TikTok critic. said Joel Thayer.
“We will not allow the Chinese government to use legal means against us and the First Amendment against us,” Thayer added. “And this is a reminder to all of our foreign adversaries that the First Amendment is a bulwark of our rights, not theirs.”
As The Post reported, TikTok faced intense questioning from a three-part panel of judges during a hearing in October.
Legal experts said the judges appeared unconvinced by key elements of TikTok's argument against the law.
Justice Department lawyers have argued that TikTok poses an unacceptable national security risk under ByteDance's control, but much of the evidence they cited in this regard remains redacted.
At a hearing in October, federal officials warned that China could change TikTok's algorithm for malicious purposes.
“It is a travesty to suggest that we could somehow detect that these 2 billion lines of code, which are 40 times larger than the entire Windows operating system and change 1,000 times every day, have been modified,” the judiciary said. Daniel, the Ministry's lawyer, said: Tenney said at the time:
Federal authorities alleged in a July filing that TikTok was able to collect sensitive data from users related to issues such as gun control and abortion, raising concerns that the Chinese government could weaponize the app. I mentioned it.
with post wire
