U.S. appeals court rejects TikTok’s request to delay ban

Washington: A federal appeals court has rejected TikTok’s request to postpone a law that will ban the widely used video app next month unless its Chinese parent company sells its stake, CBS News reported.

“The petitioners base their argument on First Amendment claims to justify temporarily blocking the Act. However, the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has already unanimously determined that the Act meets the First Amendment’s requirements under strict scrutiny,” the order stated on Friday.

TikTok is likely to request the Supreme Court’s involvement, although it is uncertain whether the court will agree to hear the case or issue a ruling before the law takes effect on January 19.

The law, passed by Congress in April as part of a foreign aid package, gives TikTok nine months to sever its ties with its parent company, ByteDance, or face removal from app stores and loss of web-hosting services in the US.

US President Joe Biden swiftly signed the bill into law, which also includes the possibility of a one-time 90-day delay if a sale is underway by that time. The Chinese government has pledged to prevent the sale of TikTok’s algorithm, which customizes content recommendations for each user.

According to TikTok and ByteDance’s legal team, any new buyer would have to recreate the algorithm from scratch, a process deemed impractical.