TikTok will have to divest itself from its Chinese ownership by Jan. 19 or face being unavailable in the United States, after a federal appeals court rejected the social media giant’s efforts to sideline a federal law.
Congress overwhelming passed legislation to force a sale of TikTok, amid national security concerns, and the company challenged the new law in court.
But the three-judge federal appellate panel, in a unanimous ruling, wrote, “The First Amendment exists to protect free speech in the United States. Here the government acted solely to protect that freedom from a foreign adversary and to limit that adversary’s ability to gather data on people in the United States.”
President-elect Donald Trump, who in hist first term initiated the effort to force a TikTok divestiture, now has indicated that he opposes such a move.
More to come.
