The popular video streaming app TikTok faced a huge setback in the United States because it failed to win an appeal in the courtroom. The platform faced a three-judge bench that unanimously dismissed its appeal.
Back in April 2024, a law was passed that made it mandatory for TikTok to sell the stakes of its parent company, ByteDance, to a non-Chinese company in order for it to stay operational in the United States. The law was passed with public security in mind, but TikTok believes it’s targeted towards it. They filed an appeal to overturn the law by stating that it infringes on the First Amendment of the US Constitution.
While TikTok’s claims were justified, the court found that having stakes in a company from a country like China, with whom the US has bad diplomatic relations, puts their citizen's data at risk. TikTok explained that selling the stakes of ByteDance would be blocked by the Chinese Government. However, the court found that that application is banned in China along with YouTube, Facebook and other social media platforms.
TikTok has time till mid-January to comply with the law otherwise, they would be put out of order, and the company would vanish from the United States, which is one of its biggest markets. Over the years, TikTok has suffered similar bans in multiple countries, including India.