December 6, 2024
A federal appeals court has upheld a new law requiring the Chinese owner of social media juggernaut TikTok to sell the app to a non-Chinese company by Jan. 19 or face a ban operating in the United States.
President Biden in April signed into federal law a bill mandating TikTok owner ByteDance sell the platform or risk being banned from operating in the U.S. Congressional lawmakers approved the bill, citing national security concerns TikTok posed exposing the personal data of its 170 million U.S. users to foreign parties.
Indeed, a 2023 Pew Research Center study found that 14% of all U.S. adults said they get daily news and entertainment, among other content, from TikTok.
ByteDance has the option to appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court, which could or could not hear the issue.
The ban takes place two days before the inauguration of President Donald Trump, who has sent mixed signals about the issue. In his first term, Trump advocated for the ban of TikTok, even pushing for the app’s sale to Oracle and Walmart, in a deal that never materialized. More recently he has approved of the app’s access in the U.S.
In an April post on the app, TikTok CEO Shou Chew said, “Rest assured, we aren’t going anywhere. We are confident, and we will keep fighting for your rights in the courts.”
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