How will the screen-addicted youth go to school now? Pretty soon, America’s ultimate time killer could be killed itself — or, at the very least, restricted from U.S. borders. On December 6, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit voted to uphold a federal law that would effectively ban TikTok from the country. The initial bill, which passed the House and Senate and was signed into law by President Biden in April (well before he disappeared into the Amazon), cited concerns over the app’s ability to mine users’ data for the Chinese government’s intelligence purposes as the reason for the ban. “Some 170 million Americans use TikTok to create and view all sorts of free expression and engage with one another and the world,” the court wrote in its decision. “And yet, in part precisely because of the platform’s expansive reach, Congress and multiple Presidents determined that divesting it from the [People’s Republic of China’s] control is essential to protect our national security.”
There’s still hope yet that we haven’t seen the last of all the dog-pampering and tradwife videos our hearts desire. The law stipulates that TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, can avoid the ban if it agrees to sell its interest in the app by January 19, 2025. TikTok is hoping to avoid that outcome with a little help from the nine men and women across the street from the Capitol. “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 spokesman for ByteDance, stated. “Unfortunately, the TikTok ban was conceived and pushed through based upon inaccurate, flawed, and hypothetical information, resulting in outright censorship of the American people.” TikTok likes its (law)suit case, too.
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