An attempt by TikTok to overturn a law banning or selling it in the US from as early as 2025 has been rejected.
The social media company had hoped that 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 American users.
But the court upheld the law, saying it was “the end of extensive, bipartisan action by Congress and successive presidents”.
TikTok says it will now take its fight to the US Supreme Court, the country’s highest legal authority.
The US wants TikTok sold or banned because it says its owners have ties to the Chinese state — links TikTok and parent company Bytedance have always denied.
The court agreed that the law was “carefully drafted to deal only with the control of a foreign adversary, and is a broad measure of countering the national security threat posed by the PRC (People’s Republic of China).” It was part of the effort.”
But TikTok said this is not the end of its legal battle.
“The Supreme Court has a historic record of protecting Americans’ right to free speech, and we expect them to do the same on this important constitutional issue,” a TikTok spokesperson said in a statement.
He added that the law was based on “false, flawed and fictitious information” and that the ban would censor American citizens.
A Donald Trump victory in the 2024 US presidential election could also offer a lifeline for the app.
Despite a failed attempt to ban TikTok during his first term in 2020, he said during the November election that he would not allow the ban to go into effect.
Trump will be inaugurated on January 20 — the day the law says TikTok can be banned or sold.
However, it remains to be seen whether he will follow through on his promise before the elections.
James Grimmelman, a professor at Cornell University, said the president-elect would “swim upstream to revive Tik Tok”.
“Anti-China sentiment is very strong in the US Congress, so there are now enough constituencies in both parties that want TikTok to be restricted from the US market,” he told BBC News.
The court case has been closely watched by both TikTok- and the app’s competitors.
Tiffany Cianci, a small business attorney and creator of TikTok, said she was “not surprised” by Friday’s decision — but told BBC News that it will not transfer its TikTok content or presence to the platform’s competitors, such as Instagram.
“I’m not going to do what they want and take my content to their platform where it’s not as successful, where it’s more likely to be censored, where I’m more likely to have less control over my audience. I am,” he said.
After all, other platforms are positioning themselves for the post-TikTok social media landscape.
Meta, which owns Facebook as well as Instagram, WhatsApp and Threads, has tried to rival TikTok’s short-form videos in its apps, and The changes users have made to TikTok come amid questions about the app’s US future.
Jasmine Enberg, principal analyst at eMarketer, said there would be “huge upheaval” if the TikTok appeal fails at the Supreme Court and the ban is upheld.
It said it would “benefit Meta, YouTube and Snap, while hurting content creators and small businesses that rely on the app to make a living.”