TikTok Still On Track for January Ban as Appeals Court Upholds Ruling

Popular social network TikTok did not receive a reprieve from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, and it is still facing a ban that is set to be enacted in January, reports The Wall Street Journal.

tiktok logo
TikTok and several of the social network's users challenged an April bill that is forcing Chinese company ByteDance to sell TikTok. The bill provided ByteDance with a nine-month period to sell TikTok to a company outside of China, and if the sale doesn't happen, TikTok won't be able to be distributed in the United States.

TikTok claimed that the bill was unconstitutional because it infringes on free speech, but the court rejected that claim.

While the ban is set to go into effect in January, TikTok is likely to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, seeking an emergency stay. From there, the Supreme Court will decide whether to hear the case.

If TikTok is banned, Google, Apple, and other app distributors will not be able to provide the app for download, nor offer updates to the app. Internet hosting services will also be blocked from supporting the app, giving U.S. users no way to download it. TikTok users will, however, be able to keep using the app so long as it functions.

ByteDance does not plan to sell TikTok, and even if the company complied and did so, China would need to approve the sale. The Chinese government has made it clear that it will firmly oppose any sale of the TikTok app. ByteDance says that it would be impossible to give the TikTok source code to a new owner because it would take years for new engineers to become familiar enough with it to perform routine maintenance.

U.S. lawmakers want TikTok sold to a non-China company over concerns that the Chinese government could force ByteDance to hand over data from users in the United States, and there have also been suggestions that China could use TikTok to spread political propaganda.

Note: Due to the political or social nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Political News forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Tag: TikTok

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Top Rated Comments

icanhazmac Avatar
14 weeks ago
I never understood why anyone would install this app.



Why does a mindless source of "stupid people tricks" need to hoover up all this data? Yes, others like Meta, Amazon, Microsoft, etc. hoover as well, but TikTok is like handing all your data straight to Pooh Bear.

Attachment Image
Score: 43 Votes (Like | Disagree)
anthogag Avatar
14 weeks ago
Ban it with extreme prejudice. It is crap. It produces brain rot. I would guess it spurs early dementia.

Follow Australia's lead. Ban social media crap like Tik Tok for children and teens up to 16 years old.
Score: 23 Votes (Like | Disagree)
nt5672 Avatar
14 weeks ago
" impossible to give the TikTok source code to a new owner because it would take years for new engineers to become familiar enough with it to perform routine maintenance."

What a crock.
Score: 23 Votes (Like | Disagree)
breather Avatar
14 weeks ago
I was all for banning TikTok, but then I watched a piece on Last Week Tonight and not everything is black and white.

I’m now in the camp of ”they are banning TikTok because YouTube, Facebook and other American based social media wants to cripple a competitor” camp. And now I kinda don’t want the ban because competition is good and screw YouTube and Facebook.

Have a look ('https://youtu.be/5CZNlaeZAtw')
Score: 20 Votes (Like | Disagree)
weckart Avatar
14 weeks ago

I was all for banning TikTok, but then I watched a piece on Last Week Tonight and not everything is black and white.

I’m now in the camp of ”they are banning TikTok because YouTube, Facebook and other American based social media wants to cripple a competitor” camp. And now I kinda don’t want the ban because competition is good and screw YouTube and Facebook.

Have a look ('https://youtu.be/5CZNlaeZAtw')
Given that China has blocked Facebook, Whatsapp, Bing, Youtube, Instagram and an array of social media located outside of China, I'm not sure anyone in the incoming administration is going to care a great deal about that.
Score: 16 Votes (Like | Disagree)
weckart Avatar
14 weeks ago
Given the news about Romania's presidential election, I can't see TikTok's being given the benefit of any doubt.
Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)