A US Court of Appeals in Washington, DC, has dealt a major blow to social media company, TikTok, after it upheld a judgment paving a way for the platform to be banned in the US.
The US government wants TikTok sold or banned because of what it says are the company owner’s links to the Chinese government, which could result in them spying on its users, government and suppressing sensitive content.
TikTok and parent company Bytedance have always denied the allegations.
“The First Amendment exists to protect free speech in the United States.
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,” read the court judgment.
The ruling leaves the company with less than a month to a possible US ban, or unless it can convince Chinese parent-company ByteDance to sell and find a buyer.
Meanwhile, TikTok has vowed that it’ll appeal Friday’s court ruling.
“The Supreme Court 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.
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 TikTok ban, unless stopped, will silence the voices of over 170 million Americans here in the US and around the world on January 19th, 2025,” said the company spokesperson, Michael Hughes.
According to the previous judgment, all US app stores, and internet services found hosting TikTok would face hefty fines if it is not sold in January next year.
