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The Court of Appeals upholds the law to sell or ban the TikTok platform in the US

2024-12-07 08:30:00, Tech CNA

The Court of Appeals upholds the law to sell or ban the TikTok platform in the

A federal appeals court on Friday upheld the law that could lead to a ban on the TikTok app within months. The decision dealt a major blow to the popular social platform as it struggles to survive in the United States.

The US Court of Appeals in Washington ruled that the law, which requires the TikTok platform to cut ties with the China-based company ByteDance, whose property it is, or be banned from entering the United States by mid-January , is consistent with the Constitution, rejecting the TikTok platform's argument that the law violates the First Amendment and that it unfairly targeted the platform.

"The First Amendment exists to protect the right to free speech in the United States," the court said in its opinion. "In this case, the Government acted to protect this right from a hostile foreign state and to limit the enemy's ability to collect data on residents of the United States."

The Court of Appeals upholds the law to sell or ban the TikTok platform in the

The platform TikTok and the company ByteDance - one of the parties in the court case - are expected to appeal the case to the Supreme Court. Meanwhile, President-elect Donald Trump, who tried to ban TikTok during his first term and whose Justice Department would enforce the law, said during the presidential campaign that he now opposes banning TikTok. -ut and that he would work to "save" the social platform.

The law, which was signed by President Joe Biden in April, was the latest step in a years-long saga in Washington over the short video app, which the government considers a national security threat because of its ties to China.

The United States says it is concerned that TikTok collects a lot of data from the app's users, including sensitive information about their preferences, that could end up in the hands of the Chinese government. Officials also warn that the platform's algorithm that determines what users see on the app can be manipulated by Chinese authorities, who could use it to direct content on the platform in a way that is difficult to detect. understood.

However, a significant part of the government's information on this case has been redacted and hidden from the public eye, as well as from the two companies.

TikTok, which sued the government over the law in May, has long denied it is being used by Beijing to spy on or manipulate Americans. Lawyers for the platform have pointed out that the United States has not provided evidence that the company has handed over user data to the Chinese government, or that it has manipulated content to suit Beijing in the United States. They also argued that the law poses future risks, which the Justice Department has highlighted, referring in part to an unspecified action it claims the two companies have taken in the past with the request. of the Chinese government.

Friday's decision came after the appeals court panel heard arguments from the parties in September.

The Court of Appeals upholds the law to sell or ban the TikTok platform in the

The lawyers of the two companies claim that it is impossible to expropriate the platform in commercial and technological terms. They say any sale of TikTok without the coveted algorithm — the secret element of the platform that Chinese authorities are likely to block under any expropriation plan — would turn the US version of TikTok into an island cut off from other global content. .

However, several investors, including former US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and billionaire Frank McCourt, have expressed interest in buying the platform. They said earlier this year that they were forming a consortium to buy the US arm of TikTok's business.

This week, a spokesman for McCourt's Project Liberty, which aims to protect online privacy, said that people, who he did not identify, who participated in their campaign have made preliminary bids totaling more than 20 billion dollars.

If the courts continue to uphold the law, then it will be up to the Justice Department under Mr. Trump's administration to enforce it and punish potential violators with fines. Penalties would be communicated to platforms that sell apps, which will be banned from offering TikTok, while internet companies will be banned from supporting it./ VOA