TikTok is one step closer to disappearing in the United States after a panel of federal judges on Friday upheld a new law that could lead to the banning of the popular Chinese-owned görüntü app by mid-January.
The three judges, in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, denied TikTok’s petition to overturn the law. The decision could be a death blow for the app in one of its biggest markets. More than 170 million Americans use TikTok to entertain and inform themselves, turning it into a cultural phenomenon. The looming loss of the app in the United States had spurred concern from free speech advocates and from the creators whose income depends on TikTok.
The decision also raises new questions for President-elect Donald J. Trump, who has repeatedly signaled his support for the app, but who doesn’t have a clear path for rescuing it under the new law.
The law, signed in April, requires TikTok’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, to sell the app to a non-Chinese company by Jan. 19 or face a ban in the United States. TikTok, which has been in the cross hairs of politicians since 2020 because of its ties to China, has said a sale is impossible, in part because it would be blocked by the Chinese government. The company argued that the law unfairly singled out TikTok and that a ban would infringe on the First Amendment rights of American users.
Exactly what happens next for the app is unclear. Experts expect the company to appeal the case to the Supreme Court, though there is no guarantee that the justices would take it up. It’s also unclear how Mr. Trump will act next. A spokesperson for his team said in November that “he will deliver” on a plan to rescue the app, but provided few details about how he would do so.
