TikTok teeters on the brink of US ban

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TikTok will appeal law stipulating that it faces ban if no buyer is found Ban on TikTok in US could cause major upheaval for small businesses

TikTok faces potential ban in the US after it failed to overturn ruling which stipulates it must be bought out
Credit:Shutterstock:Below The Sky

TikTok‘s future in the U.S. faces significant uncertainty as the platform has failed in its attempt to overturn a law that could lead to an outright ban.

TikTok had argued that the said law was unconstitutional, but this was denied in a ruling on Friday December 6. A US appeals court upheld the law, finding that it did not “contravene the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States,” nor does it “violate the Fifth Amendment guarantee of equal protection of the laws.”

This fresh ruling, starting on January 19, 2025, means that TikTik is inches away from facing a US ban. This is unless it is able to collaborate with its Chinese parent-company ByteDance to sell up and find somebody willing to buy the platform. After the January 19 deadline, US app stores and internet services will no longer be able to host TikTok if it is not sold and will face jaw-dropping fines if they do so.

TikTok will appeal law stipulating that it faces ban if no buyer is found

In a statement, TikTok stated that the decision would be appealed. “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,” said company spokesperson Michael Hughes. “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,” he added.

Meanwhile, ByteDance is not making things any easier, adamant that it will not be selling TikTok. The Chinese company has been under considerable scrutiny as a national security risk. There are concerns, especially from lawmakers, that the platform could share user data with the Chinese government, which could then be used for surveillance or alternatively that the Chinese government could use TikTok as a base for ByteDance’s algorithm to spread propaganda. In April, President Joe Biden signed a bill which stipulated that the platform had to be bought out by a new, non-Chinese owner. Failing this, TikTik would need to be banned in the US.

Ban on TikTok in US could cause major upheaval for small businesses

Although this is not quite the end of the road for TikTok, if the appeal to the Supreme Court is unfavourable, a ban on TikTok would cause major upheaval, benefitting Meta, YouTube and Snap, yet damaging content creators and small businesses that use the app in order to make a living.

Patrick Toomey, deputy director of ACLU’s National Security Project, said: “Banning TikTok blatantly violates the First Amendment rights of millions of Americans who use this app to express themselves and communicate with people around the world.” He added: “The government cannot shut down an entire communications platform unless it poses extremely serious and imminent harm, and there’s no evidence of that here.”

Many TikTok users responded outraged to the update and fear for the worst. Donald Trump has declared he does not want to ban the app, mainly because he does not want to see its rival, Facebook, and Zuckerberg go up the rankings. He said he “would never ban TikTok.” Yet, whether or not he will be able to repeal a ban is another story.