The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Friday to uphold a federal law requiring TikTok to sever ties with its Chinese parent company, ByteDance Ltd., by January 19, 2025, or face a ban in the U.S. The decision by a three-judge panel affirms the constitutionality of the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, which was enacted in April.
Free Speech vs. National Security
In the opinion authored by U.S. Circuit Judge Douglas Ginsburg, the court acknowledged the significant impact the ruling will have on TikTok and its millions of U.S. users but concluded that national security concerns justified the statute.
“The First Amendment exists to protect free speech in the United States,” Judge Ginsburg wrote. “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.”
Legal and Practical Challenges
TikTok has strongly opposed the divestiture requirement, describing it as a de facto ban on the platform. The company argues that separating from ByteDance on such a tight timeline is unrealistic and undermines free expression.
