TikTok scrolling could end next month for the 170 million users in the U.S. On December 6, 2024 a three-judge panel issued a unanimous ruling affirming legislation signed into law by President Joe Biden, that requires TikTok’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, to sell it to an American owner by January 19, 2025 or face an effective ban.
The judges determined, after hearing oral arguments in September, that the U.S. government presented sufficient arguments citing a national security risk that the social media giant could be influenced by the Chinese government and that the ban does not violate First Amendment free speech protections or Fifth Amendment equal protection guarantees.
In its conclusion, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said, “We recognize that this decision has significant implications for TikTok and its users.” Pointing out that the United States engaged in a multi-year process with TikTok to find an alternative solution to divestiture, the court said, “The government acted solely to protect [our First Amendment guarantee of freedom of speech] … from a foreign adversary nation and to limit that adversary’s ability to gather data on people in the United States.”
TikTok, which has become one of the world’s most popular social media platforms, plans to take its case to the US Supreme Court.