TikTok may disappear in the US in a month: court rejects ByteDance's appeal

The US Court of Appeals refused to stay the ban on TikTok, which will take effect on January 19, 2025. ByteDance must sell the app or it will be removed from US app stores.

TikTok faces a US ban next month after an appeals court refused to stay the measure, which takes effect unless the popular video-sharing app is sold by its China-based parent ByteDance Ltd, writes& nbsp; UNN  with reference to Bloomberg.

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The company filed the motion for a stay after a federal appeals court in Washington upheld a law that would ban the social media platform in the U.S. unless ByteDance abandons the app by Jan. 19. TikTok asked for a stay while it appeals the ruling and awaits a decision from the incoming administration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump.

TikTok said it now plans to take its case to the U.S. Supreme Court. “The voices of over 170 million Americans here in the U.S. and around the world will be silenced on January 19, 2025, if the TikTok ban is not lifted,” the company wrote on X after an appeals panel denied its request.

The appeals court has already concluded that the law protecting Americans from programs controlled by foreign adversaries “satisfies the First Amendment’s requirements under enhanced scrutiny,” a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit wrote in a two-page decision Friday.

Unless the courts act, TikTok will be removed from mobile app stores on Jan. 19, making it unavailable to Americans who don’t already use the platform. Current users will eventually be unable to access the app.

In its previous ruling, the appeals court said the U.S. government had justified national security concerns that China could use the platform to collect data on citizens or spread propaganda. It rejected the company’s argument that the law violates constitutional protections for free speech.

Many who use the platform for information and entertainment are hoping Trump will come to their aid after he spoke out against the ban on the campaign trail in an effort to reach young voters. He tried unsuccessfully to force the sale of the app during his first term.

TikTok wrote that the Trump administration could suspend the law or mitigate its most serious potential consequences. According to the company, the law gives the president and attorney general “broad authority to set deadlines and enforce its provisions.”

The U.S. Department of Justice asked the court to dismiss the request, arguing that an “indefinite delay,” which could last more than a year, would “particularly harm the government’s and the public’s interest in enforcing the law.”