US appeal court upholds law banning TikTok if it is not sold
ByteDance, owner of popular short-video app, must sell it to non-Chinese buyer by January 19; TikTok vows to appeal to US Supreme Court
The three-judge panel unanimously sided with a law signed by President Joe Biden in April, which mandates that TikTok – owned by the Chinese tech giant ByteDance – must find an American purchaser by the deadline or be removed from US app stores and web-hosting services.
“We conclude the portions of the act the petitioners have standing to challenge, that is the provisions concerning TikTok and its related entities, survive constitutional scrutiny,” Senior Judge Douglas Ginsburg wrote in the opinion.
“We therefore deny the petitions.”
TikTok said shortly after the ruling was announced that the decision was “flawed” and would “silence” voices globally, vowing to appeal the decision to the US 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,” the company said.
It added: “Unfortunately, the TikTok ban was conceived and pushed through based upon inaccurate, flawed and hypothetical information, resulting in outright censorship of the American people.
