A federal court has upheld a law stating that TikTok needs to cut ties with its parent company, Chinese-owned ByteDance, or be banned in the U.S. from Jan. 19, 2025. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit denied TikTok’s appeal to overturn the law. The company argued that it violated the First Amendment. “The First Amendment exists to protect free speech in the United States,” said the court’s opinion, written by Judge Douglas Ginsburg. “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.” TikTok and ByteDance are expected to appeal the decision to the Supreme Court, though it’s unclear if the Court would hear the case. The ban was signed into law by Joe Biden in April, capping off a years-long fight against the popular app, which lawmakers view as a threat to national security.
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