They have vowed not to give up the fight
TikTok’s bid to overturn a law which would see the app banned or sold in the US in early 2025 has been rejected.
The US wanted TikTok banned because of what it says are its owners links to the Chinese state – links TikTok and parent company ByteDance have always denied.
The social media giant had hoped a federal appeals court would agree with its argument that the law was unconstitutional because it represented a “staggering” impact on the free speech of its 170 million US users.
However, the court upheld the law, which it said ‘was the culmination of extensive, bipartisan action by the Congress and by successive presidents’.
It went on to say the law was ‘carefully crafted to deal only with control by a foreign adversary, and it was part of a broader effort to counter a well-substantiated national security threat posed by the PRC (People’s Republic of China).’
The company now says it will take its fight to the US Supreme Court, the highest legal authority in the country, as it refuses to give up on the fight.
A spokesperson for TikTok said: “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.”
They added that the law was based on ‘inaccurate, flawed and hypothetical information’ and a ban would censor US citizens.
They are hoping that Donald Trump’s victory in the 2024 US Presidential Election will also provide a lifeline for the app.
Though he unsuccessfully attempted to ban the app in his first term as president in 2020, he said in the run-up to this election that he would not allow the app to be banned.
Trump will be inaugurated on 20 January – the day after the law says TikTok must be banned or sold.
Those who use the app have criticised the decision to uphold the ban.
Jasmine Enberg, principal analyst at eMarketer, told the BBC there would be ‘major upheaval’ if a TikTok appeal were to fail at the Supreme Court and a ban was enforced.
She said this would be ‘benefitting Meta, YouTube and Snap, while hurting content creators and small businesses that rely on the app to make a living.’
