US Appeals Court Confirms TikTok Ban

In a significant ruling on Friday, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld an earlier decision in favor of the US government in its case against TikTok. The court confirmed that the government can require TikTok's owner, the Chinese tech company ByteDance Ltd., to divest the social media app by January 19 or face its closure in the US on national security grounds.

The court's decision has "significant implications" for TikTok and its users, as noted by the judges. However, they placed the responsibility for the ruling on the Chinese government's "hybrid commercial threat to US national security." The court also highlighted that the US government "engaged with TikTok through a multi-year process in an effort to find an alternative solution." Finally, the court emphasized that the US government acted to protect freedom of speech from a "foreign adversary nation and to limit that adversary's ability to gather data" of US citizens.