Federal Appeals Court Upholds Required Ban or Sale of Tiktok

On Friday a federal appeals court ruled that TikTok must break ties with ByteDance, its China-based parent company, or be banned in the U.S. due to national security concerns.

The Details: After Congress received classified briefings on China’s ability to surveil Americans, President Biden signed the ‘sell-or-ban law’ that received support across the aisle. In response, TikTok and several influencers sued, claiming the law infringed on free speech. TikTok will likely appeal to the Supreme Court and has maintained that it cannot split with ByteDance. It remains unclear how Google or Apple will comply with the law potentially removing it from their app stores.

Key Quote: Judge Douglas Ginsburg wrote that “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.”

For Context: The ban on TikTok remains unpopular with only 32% of Americans supporting it, according to Pew Research (Center bias). Trump has also claimed he will ‘save’ TikTok and prevent a ban.

How The Media Covered It: The Washington Free Beacon (Right) asserted TikTok is “CCP-Controlled” in its headline while AP News (Left) focused on differing claims around free speech and China's ability to surveil Americans through TikTok.