Court Upholds TikTok Ban, a Potential Death Blow to App’s Future in U.S.
The D.C. Court of Appeals has upheld a law that would ban TikTok in the United States unless its Chinese parent company ByteDance sells the popular social media platform.
In a Friday ruling, Senior Judge Douglas Ginsburg wrote that “the portions of the [Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act] the petitioners have standing to challenge, that is the provisions concerning TikTok and its related entities, survive constitutional scrutiny.”
“On the merits, we reject each of the petitioners’ constitutional claims,” he added. “As we shall explain, the parts of the Act that are properly before this court do not contravene the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, nor do they violate the Fifth Amendment guarantee of equal protection of the laws; constitute an unlawful bill of attainder […] or work an uncompensated taking of private property in violation of the Fifth Amendment.”
The court’s three-judge panel voted unanimously to uphold the law.
“We are disappointed in the court’s decision, which deprives millions of Americans of their First Amendment rights,” Ambika Kumar of Davis Wright Tremaine, the law firm representing eight TikTok creators who sued the government over the law, wrote in a statement provided to Rolling Stone. “We look forward to vindicating those rights in the Supreme Court.”
The law is currently scheduled to take effect on Jan. 19, 2025, but an appeal could push the deadline back.
Steven King, one of the creators who challenged the law in court, says he wasn’t surprised by the decision. “It was expected,” he told Rolling Stone on Friday. “I made the assumption that this was going to happen and appeals would be filed and a request for the Supreme Court to hear the case would happen, and that’s what’s going to happen.”
King is hopeful that the Supreme Court, or even Donald Trump — who has allies invested in TikTok and who said last year he opposed the ban — could help keep the platform alive: “Do I feel like this would be the only possible reason that I would ever agree with [Trump] being in office again? If it saves my career, then, hey, he’s done something for me.”
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Trump will be sworn into office on Jan. 20, one day after the ban is scheduled to take effect. The president-elect posted he and his team’s metrics on TikTok to Truth Social on Thursday.
The Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act was signed into law by President Joe Biden in April. The legislation gave ByteDance 270 days to sell TikTok, or else the app would be banned in the United States. The law also created a process through which the president can designate other social media applications with ties to foreign governments as a national security risk and force a similar divestment.
In 2021, ByteDance reported 1.9 billion daily active users across 150 counties, and netted an annual revenue of about $120 billion in 2023, only slightly less than Silicon Valley giant Meta. In April, sources told Reuters that ByteDance would rather have the app be shut down in the United States than sell the incredibly valuable algorithms and other intellectual property that fuel not only the success of TikTok — which despite its popularity operates as at a loss — but other apps in ByteDance’s portfolio.
In May, TikTok — along with the eight creators — filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the legislation. “Congress has taken the unprecedented step of expressly singling out and banning TikTok: a vibrant online forum for protected speech and expression used by 170 million Americans to create, share, and view videos over the Internet,” the company wrote in their initial filing.
“If Congress can do this, it can circumvent the First Amendment by invoking national security and ordering the publisher of any individual newspaper or website to sell to avoid being shut down,” the filing continued. “And for TikTok, any such divestiture would disconnect Americans from the rest of the global community on a platform devoted to shared content — an outcome fundamentally at odds with the Constitution’s commitment to both free speech and individual liberty.”
Topher Townshend, a MAGA rapper and commentator who was also on the creators’ lawsuit, said Friday’s news “hits hard” because as a veteran he “swore an oath to defend the values that this country stands for, especially the Constitution’s guarantee of free speech.”
“The visibility and support I’ve received from this platform have enabled me to create a lifestyle that would otherwise be unattainable,” he said in a statement to Rolling Stone. “A ban on TikTok would not merely silence a platform; it would destroy livelihoods, restrict innovation, and undermine the very liberties I vowed to safeguard.” Townshend added that he believes “there are methods to address concerns without jeopardizing the principles for which many of us have battled” and that he will “continue to advocate for the liberties that make this country great.”
Talia Cadet, a DC-based lifestyle creator who participated in the lawsuit, gave a similar assessment to Rolling Stone. “I’ll process, and my community will process, and then we’re going to continue fighting,” she said of her disappointment over Friday’s ruling.
“We’re hoping that the [Supreme Court] can stop the ban from going into effect in January,” Cadet added, expressing hope that the court would grant a stay on the legislation’s enforcement until the case is heard and ruled on. “Even a temporary ban is devastating for us creators, it’s devastating for our communities. A long term, permanent [ban] will be equally devastating.”
“The fight is not over,” Cadet said. “We’re going to continue to fight for ourselves as creators, and for users.”