Let me get this straight. Musk doesn't want lower-priced Chinese EVs here...which the public clammers for. Zuck doesn't want TikTok competition here because their kicking Instagram's ass...so the government protects these gonifs and the American public gets fleeced. Oh, wait a minute, Voldemort doesn't like Zuck and opposes the ban. Love it!
Honestly, do I care if the Chinese are getting intelligence on America's youngsters? What intelligence? Sorry, that was very cynical. Truth be told, Australia has it right, to ban social media to kids under 16.
Appeals Court Upholds U.S. Ban of TikTok
Panel rules Congress has the power to shut down Chinese-backed app in the U.S. because of national security concerns
By Jacob Gershman, Meghan Bobrowsky and Sarah E. Needleman, WSJ
Updated Dec. 6, 2024 5:12 pm ET
A federal appeals court ruled Friday that TikTok can be banned in the U.S. over national security concerns, upholding a federal law requiring the popular social media app to shed its Chinese ownership to keep operating.
A three-judge panel in Washington, D.C., said Congress has the power to take action against TikTok to protect U.S. interests. The decision relied heavily on warnings from U.S. officials that the Chinese government can exert its will on the app’s parent company, Beijing-based ByteDance, potentially giving it the ability to access U.S. users’ data and manipulate what they see on the platform.
The decision, by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, rejected arguments by TikTok and several of its star users that the ban was an unconstitutional infringement on free speech.
“The First Amendment exists to protect free speech in the United States. 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,” Judge Douglas Ginsburg wrote for the court.
The sell-or-ban law—signed by President Biden in April—passed with bipartisan support after lawmakers received classified briefings from the intelligence community about the threat the app could pose to national security, including China’s ability to use TikTok to surveil Americans and spread Chinese propaganda.
TikTok, which is helmed by CEO Shou Zi Chew, claimed that American security fears are speculative and overblown. The ban’s terms are set to take effect in mid-January, though how it will be implemented is unclear.
TikTok is expected to appeal to the Supreme Court, but the justices are under no obligation to hear the case.
“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,” a TikTok spokesman said. “Unfortunately, the TikTok ban was conceived and pushed through based upon inaccurate, flawed and hypothetical information, resulting in outright censorship of the American people.”
Attorney General Merrick Garland called the ruling “an important step in blocking the Chinese government from weaponizing TikTok.”
ByteDance has said it can’t and won’t sell its U.S. operations. The Chinese government has opposed a forced sale, preferring to keep TikTok’s proprietary algorithm and source code under Chinese control.
The U.S. isn’t the first country to attempt a ban on TikTok, the Chinese-owned app used by millions of Americans daily. WSJ breaks down TikTok bans and how they work in practice. Photo illustration: Annie Zhao
President-elect Donald Trump’s pending return to the White House adds a layer of uncertainty to what happens next. Trump sought to restrict TikTok in his first term, but he muddied his position earlier this year, expressing concern that a ban would shift users to rival Facebook.
The ban doesn’t make it a crime for TikTok’s 170 million U.S. users to keep using the app. But it prohibits mobile app stores, such as Google’s and Apple’s, from letting users download or update it and bars internet hosting services from supporting the app, effectively shutting it down in the U.S.
Google and Apple haven’t indicated how they would comply with the law. Apple didn’t respond to a request for comment and Google when reached didn’t have anything to add.
The statute subjects violators to fines of $5,000 multiplied by the number of people in the U.S. who “accessed, maintained or updated” the TikTok app. That means, in theory, companies defying the ban could face civil penalties in the hundreds of billions of dollars.
The platform has operated as TikTok in the U.S. since 2018. It exploded in popularity, particularly among Gen Z users drawn in by its short-form video format, content-recommendation formula and easy editing features. It is now the fifth-most widely used social-media platform in the U.S. among adults and a major news source for young adults, according to Pew Research Center survey data.
The decision didn’t prompt widespread alarm on the platform Friday afternoon, though one post about the ruling garnered more than 5 million views.
TikTok’s fans have largely believed the platform will find a way to keep operating in the U.S., though some content creators are increasingly thinking through what they’ll do if it doesn’t.
“That would suck,” said Mario Riveira, 35 years old, a full-time creator in San Francisco with more than 300,000 TikTok followers. His posts are mainly humor videos featuring man-on-the-street interviews he conducts with strangers. “I would have to go harder on other platforms like YouTube and Instagram,” said Riveira, adding that about half of his income comes through the Chinese-owned platform.
The elimination of TikTok in the U.S. would mark a turning point in the geopolitical tussle over control of internet media and user data. Gmail, Google, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and X are all blocked in China under its “Great Firewall” censorship regime. But never has the U.S. cut off access to a social-media giant.
TikTok had earlier tried to assuage national security concerns by spending billions of dollars on a project to house U.S. user data in the country, hoping that would satisfy the government. Dubbed Project Texas, the move didn’t help, and TikTok employees told The Wall Street Journal that data was still being shared with its China-based parent.
A group of eight TikTok content creators also challenged the law on First Amendment grounds, arguing that the ban was akin to forbidding freelance journalists from publishing in magazines of their choice or dictating to musicians what studios they could record in.
Ginsburg said the court recognized that its decision had “serious implications” for TikTok users, but said “that burden is attributable to [China’s] hybrid commercial threat to U.S. national security, not to the U.S. Government, which engaged with TikTok through a multiyear process in an effort to find an alternative solution.”
The opinion said the Chinese could use TikTok to assemble structured data sets on Americans, like it has already done through hacking operations targeting U.S. firms such as Equifax and the U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Access to TikTok user data could allow the Chinese government to track the locations of federal employees and contractors or build personal dossiers for blackmail, the court said, citing claims by the U.S. government.
The court said the threats posed by content manipulation were no less serious, because China could distort public discourse for its own ends. China’s “ability to do so is at odds with free speech fundamentals,” Ginsburg, a Reagan appointee, wrote for the panel. He was joined by Judges Sri Srinivasan, an Obama appointee, and Neomi Rao, a Trump appointee.
TikTok will likely deploy a two-pronged approach as it tries to salvage its U.S. presence. To postpone the ban’s current Jan. 19 effective date, the company would likely need an emergency stay from the Supreme Court. The high court has been sensitive to free-speech claims, but also traditionally has deferred to the other branches on national security matters.
The app’s other potential avenue is through Trump, who in theory could refuse to enforce the ban or invoke provisions of the law that allow the president to lift the ban if his administration determines the site is no longer under Chinese control.
In 2020, he sought to shut down TikTok through an executive order, an effort that faltered under legal challenge. The former president now derides Facebook as a bigger threat to the American public, saying “it will only get bigger and stronger if TikTok is taken out.” The Meta-owned app suspended Trump in 2021 and restored his account in 2023.
Trump joined TikTok during the 2024 election and used it to reach younger audiences. He now boasts more than 14 million followers on the app.
Write to Jacob Gershman at jacob.gershman@wsj.com
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