US appeals court upholds verdict forcing TikTok to sell company

The appeals court in Washington DC ruled on December 6 that the US can ban TikTok from operating in the country due to national security concerns, upholding the ruling requiring the Chinese app to be sold to an American company.

TikTok office in Culver City, California

A three-judge appeals panel in Washington DC ruled that the US Congress has the right to act against TikTok to protect US national security, according to Reuters on December 7.

The ruling follows warnings from US officials concerned about the possibility that the Chinese government could force TikTok's parent company, ByteDance (headquartered in China), to hand over access to US user data and manipulate what Americans can see on the platform.

The District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals rejected arguments by TikTok and some of the app's star users that the ban infringed on Americans' free speech rights.

“The First Amendment exists to protect freedom of speech in the United States. In this case, the US government is simply acting to protect that freedom from a rival state and limit its ability to collect data on users in the United States,” Justice Douglas Ginsburg said.

President Joe Biden signed into law in April a bipartisan bill requiring TikTok to sell its US assets by January 19, 2025, or be banned entirely in the country.

TikTok has said the US national security concerns are overblown and based on speculation. It plans to appeal to the Supreme Court, but the judges there are not obligated to take up the case.

ByteDance says it cannot and will not sell its US business. The Chinese government opposes a forced sale of TikTok.

The ban does not criminalize TikTok’s 170 million US users from continuing to use it. However, it prohibits mobile app stores on Google and Apple from allowing users to download or update the app and prohibits services that provide server resources to support the app, steps that will cut off TikTok’s operations in the US.

Google and Apple have not said how they will comply with the TikTok ban.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/toa-phuc-tham-my-giu-nguyen-ban-an-buoc-tiktok-phai-ban-cong-ty-185241207060839348.htm