The clock ticks down for TikTok as lawmakers push to ban the app and courts refuse to block the ban.
A federal appeals court unanimously upheld the ban Friday after TikTok appealed the law in May.
“The First Amendment exists to protect free speech in the United States,” said Judge Douglas Ginsburg in the Court’s opinion. “Here the Government acted solely to protect that freedom from a foreign adversary nation and to limit that adversary’s ability to gather data on people in the United States.”
Unless the law is enjoined by the United States Supreme Court, TikTok will face a nation-wide ban in the United States beginning Jan. 19. Should the Supreme Court choose not to block the ban, ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, may choose to sell TikTok.
TikTok’s coveted algorithm, which is vital to ByteDance’s core operations, makes a sale unlikely.
“Foreign media reports that ByteDance is exploring the sale of TikTok are untrue. ByteDance has no plans to sell TikTok,” ByteDance said on Toutiao.
President Biden may choose to extend ByteDance’s deadline by 90 days, though this is unlikely. The bipartisan law was signed by President Biden after passing with support from both parties in the House and Senate in April.
President-elect Donald Trump signaled during his campaign that he would not ban the app as president, though given the law has already been passed and upheld by all three branches, there is not much he could do. He could ask his Attorney General to reject enforcing the law, or he could ask the House and Senate, both under Republican control, to repeal the law.
However, given the GOP’s slim majorities in Congress and the bill’s overwhelming 352-65 passage in the House and 79-18 passage in the Senate, Trump’s overall influence would be minimal.
In the House, Republicans only maintain a 220-215 majority, and that is excluding Matt Gaetz’s resignation and the nominations of Elise Stefanik and Mike Waltz to President-elect Trump’s cabinet. At that 220-215 majority, Republicans can only afford to lose two votes. At a 217-215 majority, Republicans cannot afford to lose any.
In the Senate, Republicans only maintain a 53-47 majority. While a simple majority of 51 votes is theoretically enough, 60 votes are required to end debate and allow a vote.
Even if Trump could get Congress to support his position, he does not have the best history with China, making his campaign promise to back TikTok hard to believe. Notably, during his first term at the height of the coronavirus pandemic, he blamed China, calling COVID-19 the “Chinavirus,” while simultaneously criticizing China’s strict lockdowns.
