The Frontline | TikTok Lost the Case and Will Appeal to the US Supreme Court.
Text | Lan Jie
Editor | Qiao Qian
TikTok Declared to Have Lost the Lawsuit.
On December 6 local time, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit announced that it would uphold the "sell or ban" act for TikTok. The three judges involved in the ruling stated that the "sell or ban" act for TikTok is only targeted at foreign adversaries and does not violate the First Amendment of the US Constitution.
This means that, as originally planned, TikTok needs to complete the sale or confirm the progress of the sale to the then president before January 19, 2025; otherwise, it will be banned.
In response, the official response from TikTok stated, "The TikTok ban is based on inaccurate, flawed, and hypothetical information and was proposed and promoted." "Unless stopped, this TikTok ban will silence the voices of more than 170 million Americans in the United States and globally on January 19, 2025."
TikTok Official Website Announcement
TikTok's CEO Chew Shou Zi said, "Our next step is to seek a temporary injunction against the ban law and wait for the review of the US Supreme Court." However, it is still unknown whether the US Supreme Court will accept the relevant cases. Chew Shou Zi also said that TikTok will apply for an injunction to temporarily prevent the law from taking effect.
In March of this year, the United States House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee, the House of Representatives, and the Senate passed the "sell or ban" act for TikTok at an extremely fast speed and with an overwhelming number of votes, and it was finally signed into effect by US President Biden.
During this period, TikTok maintained a firm attitude of resistance and even once pushed a pop-up screen to its American users to call on users to call the congressmen in their respective regions to request the revocation of the divestment act against TikTok.
The situation is becoming more severe, but TikTok still has room for negotiation.
The turning point occurred when Trump won the quadrennial US general election. As early as July of this year, Trump told the media that he opposed the "sell or ban" act for TikTok signed by the Biden administration and claimed that he would support this short-video company. After winning the general election, Trump also said that he would "keep his promise."
On November 24 of this year, according to The Wall Street Journal, TikTok is contacting Elon Musk to seek his advice on US affairs. Musk is a supporter of the US President-elect Trump. At a time when TikTok is facing the threat of a US ban, Chew Shou Zi and ByteDance's executives regard Musk as a potentially useful channel for communicating with the new government. Chew Shou Zi reported these interactions to ByteDance's executives, who are cautiously optimistic about them.
In addition, according to the provisions of the act, TikTok actually still has one year, including the 270-day divestment period stipulated in the latest version of the act, and an additional 90 days after the US president confirms the progress of TikTok's sale - that is, until April next year.
Two days before the appeal failed, TikTok Shop just announced its Black Friday results in the US region - on Black Friday, the daily sales of TikTok Shop exceeded $100 million, three times that of the same period last year. In addition, the number of shoppers attracted by TikTok Shop during the weekend between Black Friday and Cyber Monday increased by 165% year-on-year. Despite the ban, TikTok is still rushing forward.