Key Takeaways
- A U.S. federal court upholds a law to impose a nationwide ban on TikTok starting in January.
- TikTok is now expected to appeal to the Supreme Court ahead of a January 19 deadline.
- TikTok is also facing legal challenges from 13 U.S. states over perceived addictive qualities and mental health risks.
A federal court in the United States has upheld the legality of a bi-partisan action that could cause social media app TikTok to become inaccessible nationwide beginning in January 2025. Attorneys representing TikTok are expected to appeal the decision to the Supreme Court of the United States, but they’re currently up against a January 19 deadline.
Earlier this year, the United States Congress passed a bill that ordered TikTok‘s Beijing-centered parent company, ByteDance, to either sell TikTok to another company or face a ban of the app across the United States. That bill was signed into law in April by President Joe Biden, who is set to leave the office of the president on January 20, one day after the nationwide ban is scheduled to go into effect. The intent of the ban, as previously explained by FBI Director Christopher Wray, is to curb the national security threat of the Chinese Communist Party against the United States.
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The U.S. District Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled on December 6 to uphold Congress’ vote following a petition by TikTok. “The First Amendment exists to protect free speech in the United States,” the court’s opinion states. “Here the Government acted solely to protect that freedom from a foreign adversary nation and to limit that adversary’s ability to gather data on people in the United States.” The court’s decision strikes another blow against the social media app, as 13 U.S. states are also suing TikTok over its perceived addictive qualities and mental health risks against children. As of January, figures showed roughly 170 million active TikTok users across the United States.
TikTok Will Have to Appeal to U.S. Supreme Court to Avoid Ban
Though the fate of TikTok now appears to rest with the Supreme Court, the upcoming presidential inauguration could still play a factor. President-elect Donald Trump’s planned tariff policies have taken a particularly hard stance against China, with campaign claims about enacting a 60 percent tariff on all goods coming into the United States from that nation. Although Trump had attempted a similar TikTok ban through an executive order during his first term of office in 2020, Trump promised to save TikTok during his time on the campaign trail. Additionally, conservative Supreme Court justices outnumber liberals two-to-one, and Trump has appointed three of the nine justices on the nation’s highest judicial body.
A rise in opposition against social media is becoming more commonplace not just in the United States, but in other nations as well. In late November, Australia approved a social media ban that will prevent anyone under the age of 16 from using social media of any kind, and the companies running those social media platforms will face fines at the end of the one-year grace period if they do not comply with enforcement of the ban.