Federal Judges Rule: Tiktok Can Be Banned

A federal appeals court sided with the Justice Department on Friday and upheld a law that would ban TikTok in the U.S. if the video-sharing app is not sold by Jan. 19.

A three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit denied petitions to block the law from TikTok, its parent company ByteDance and creator groups.

“We conclude the portions of the Act the petitioners have standing to challenge, that is the provisions concerning TikTok and its related entities, survive constitutional scrutiny. We therefore deny the petitions,” Judge Douglas Ginsburg, a Reagan appointee, wrote in the majority opinion.

The ban takes effect one day before Donald Trump’s inauguration. Trump had pledged in his campaign to “save TikTok” — putting the president-elect in a position of possibly defending a law he opposed. Trump’s transition team did not immediately respond to questions about his plans.

TikTok did not immediately comment on the ruling. If TikTok appeals the decision — to a fuller panel of judges or to the Supreme Court — it could drag out the high-profile fight that marks a historic strike at tech’s ties to China and could have far-reaching implications for digital free speech.

The 92-page ruling lands more than seven months after TikTok, ByteDance and other groups sued to block the law in May, arguing that it suppresses speech by banning a platform used by more than half the U.S. population.