Due to national security concerns, a court upholds the divestiture law, and TikTok faces a U.S. ban.

After a federal appeals court upheld a law requiring its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to divest the app by January 19, 2025, or face prohibition, TikTok faces a serious threat of being banned in the United States. This decision follows the December 6, 2024, rejection by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit of TikTok’s attempt to challenge the law on constitutional grounds.

In its unanimous decision against TikTok, the court argued that the law was constitutional and intended to safeguard American national security from possible threats from foreign adversaries, citing worries about data privacy and false information associated with the Chinese government.

TikTok argued that banning the app would infringe upon the First Amendment rights of its 170 million American users, who utilize the platform for free expression. But the court insisted that the purpose of the law was to protect these liberties from outside interference.

If ByteDance does not divest TikTok by January 19, 2025, app stores like Apple and Google will be required to remove it from their platforms, effectively banning it from U.S. markets

The fact that Donald Trump will take office as president on January 20, 2025, adds even more complexity to the situation. Trump may have an impact on future decisions about TikTok’s status in the United States because he has previously voiced opposition to the app’s ban.