Appeals Court Rules TikTok Ban Doesn’t Violate First Amendment

A federal appeals court ruled Friday (Dec. 6) that the U.S. law requiring Chinese company ByteDance to sell its TikTok app or see the app banned in the country does not violate the First Amendment.

The ruling means that the ban will take effect Jan. 19 unless the app is sold or the Supreme Court puts a stop to the ban, Bloomberg reported Friday.

The three-judge panel’s ruling was unanimous, according to the report.

“The First Amendment exists to protect free speech in the United States,” Judge Douglas Ginsburg wrote for the panel, per the report. “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 panel said in its ruling that the Chinese government enacted laws that allow it to access and use data held by Chinese companies, according to the report.

TikTok said in a statement on the decision that it expects the Supreme Court to protect “Americans’ right to free speech” on this issue as the court has done historically.

“Unfortunately, the TikTok ban was conceived and pushed through based upon inaccurate, flawed and hypothetical information, resulting in outright censorship of the American people,” the statement said. “The TikTok ban, unless stopped, will silence the voices of over 170 million Americans here in the U.S. and around the world on January 19th, 2025.”

In a statement issued by the Justice Department, which defended the law in court, Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said the appeals court’s decision will help block the Chinese government from “weaponizing” the app by collecting sensitive information, manipulating content and undermining U.S. national security.

“As the D.C. Circuit recognized, this Act protects the national security of the United States in a manner that is consistent with the Constitution,” Garland said.

President Joe Biden in April signed the bill into law requiring ByteDance to sell TikTok by Jan. 19, following concerns that the service presented a national security threat. TikTok sued in an attempt to keep the ban from happening.

It’s not clear whether a new administration will make a difference, PYMNTS reported Monday (Dec. 2).