President Joe Biden signed into law legislation that gives ByteDance up to a year to divest from TikTok. The company lost its first legal effort to overturn the law on Friday, when a panel of three federal judges unanimously rejected TikTok’s argument that the law violated the First Amendment. The company pledged to appeal the decision to the Supreme Court.
TikTok, which boasts 170 million users in the United States, could be banned as soon as mid-January, unless it receives a court-ordered injunction that would pause the law from taking effect as the appeal proceeds. There is also a chance that President-elect Donald Trump will try to rescue the app.
Here’s why the pressure has been ratcheted up on TikTok.
It all comes down to China.
Lawmakers and regulators in the West have increasingly expressed concern that TikTok and its parent company, ByteDance, may put sensitive user data, like location information, into the hands of the Chinese government. They have pointed to laws that allow the Chinese government to secretly demand data from Chinese companies and citizens for intelligence-gathering operations.
Discover the stories of your interest
They are also worried that China could use TikTok’s content recommendations to fuel misinformation, a concern that has escalated in the United States during the Israel-Hamas war and the presidential election. Critics say TikTok has fueled the spread of antisemitism. TikTok has long denied such allegations and has tried to distance itself from ByteDance, which is considered to be one of the world’s most highly valued startups.
How will the ban work?
The mechanics of the ban take aim at app stores, like those operated by Apple and Google: If they distribute or update TikTok, the federal government could impose civil penalties on them. Internet hosting companies will also be barred from helping to distribute or maintain TikTok.
The push to force a TikTok sale has already generated speculation about potential buyers, including a group of investors brought together by a former Treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin; large U.S. corporations; or a coalition of private equity firms. Billionaire Frank McCourt also expressed interest in leading a purchase of the app.
The sell-or-be-banned approach has raised concern among advocates for digital rights that the United States may be undermining its role in promoting an open and free internet that is not controlled by individual countries.
When will the ban take effect?
It could take effect as soon as Jan. 19. But if the Supreme Court takes up TikTok’s eventual appeal, the justices could pause the law from taking effect while they hear the case.
There is also a chance that ByteDance and TikTok consider a sale under the terms of the new law, which could give TikTok several more months to operate in the United States. And of course, the Trump administration’s promises to save the app present a wild card.
Why did TikTok lose its first legal challenge?
A panel of three federal judges in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit unanimously upheld the new lawFriday. They said the law did not limit Americans’ freedom of speech, as TikTok had argued.
“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,” the judges wrote.
Will TikTok be removed from my phone?
Probably not.
The law would penalize internet service providers and app store companies like Apple and Google for distributing or updating TikTok on app stores. So the TikTok app would probably degrade over time, slowly becoming unusable.
Can Trump save TikTok?
Trump repeatedly signaled his support for the app on the campaign trail this year, marking an about-face from 2020, when he sought to block TikTok in the United States.
A spokesperson for his team told The New York Times in November that “he will deliver” on a plan to rescue the app but provided few details about how he would do so. The law is scheduled to go into effect a day before Trump’s inauguration.
It would take an act of Congress to repeal the law. Some experts have speculated that Trump could ask his new attorney general to refrain from enforcing it. But that would put technology companies like Apple and Google in a tricky spot. Tech giants would have to trust in the Trump administration’s potentially mercurial promises of nonenforcement and prepare for that to change under a different president.
The law also gives the president the authority to decide whether a sale or a similar transaction successfully removes TikTok from “foreign adversary” control. Some experts speculated that ByteDance could make some structural changes to appease those requirements. If Trump blessed them, he could allow the app to continue operating in the United States.
His commitment to TikTok’s future is also uncertain given his hawkish stance on China.
What’s happening at the local level?
More than 30 states, and New York City, have joined the federal government in banning TikTok on government-issued devices. Many colleges have blocked it from campus Wi-Fi networks. But students often just switch to cellular data to use the app.
What is TikTok’s response?
TikTok has referred to the bans as “political theater” and criticized lawmakers for attempting to censor Americans. After losing its first legal challenge of the law, TikTok said it planned to appeal to the Supreme Court.
“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,” Michael Hughes, a spokesperson for TikTok, said in a statement. He said the new law had been pushed through on the basis of “inaccurate, flawed and hypothetical information.”
TikTok has also said a sale is impossible, in part because the Chinese government would block it.
What can I do right now to protect my data if I use TikTok?
To protect your privacy on TikTok, you can employ the same practices used to protect yourself on other social media platforms. That includes not giving apps permission to have access to your location or contacts.
You can also watch TikTok videos without opening an account.
