TikTok scrolling could end next month for the 170 million users in the U.S. after a three-judge panel sided with the U.S. Department of Justice in its defense of a law requiring the parent company of TikTok to sell or face a ban next month.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit upheld a law passed by Congress and signed by President Joe Biden earlier this year that gives the government the authority to ban TikTok, citing a national security risk that the social media giant could be influenced by the Chinese government.
ByteDance, which owns TikTok, is based in China.
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TikTok responded to the ruling saying it’s expecting an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court which “has an established historical record of protecting Americans' right to free speech, and we expect they will do just that on this important constitutional issue.”
Attorney George Wang with the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University said the ruling wasn’t a shock given the direction of question during oral arguments in September, but no less concerning for free speech integrity.
“If the D.C. Circuit is right that the government can, you know, shut down an entire social media platform for relatively broad national security reasons, then it's hard to see where that ends,” Wang said.
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In March, NBC 5 spoke with Texas-based social media influencers about potential congressional action before the law was passed.
Charles Brockman III, who has 8.2 million TikTok followers and grew up in Plano, said he was already working towards creating content on multiple platforms.
“It's kind of scary thinking about how much work I put into that, and it could just be gone instantly,” he said.
It’s unclear how the next six weeks will unfold when the ban is set to take effect on January 19.
ByteDance has not indicated the company is for sale, so that leaves intervention by the U.S. Supreme Court possible, but not certain.
Additionally, President Joe Biden could provide a time extension for ByteDance to comply, delaying implantation of the new law.
President-Elect Donald Trump takes office on January 20. Trump supported a ban during his first term in 2020, but during campaign for election earlier this year said he supported saving TikTok.
