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Court decision could be appealed to the Supreme Court

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DOJ says TikTok is a threat to national security and

should be

sold

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Trump has vowed to prevent TikTok from being barred

WASHINGTON, Dec 6 (Reuters) - A U.S. federal appeals

court on Friday upheld a law requiring Chinese-based ByteDance

to divest its popular short video app TikTok in the United

States by early next year or face a ban.

The ruling could be appealed to the Supreme Court or full

appeals court panel.

U.S. appeals court Judges Sri Srinivasan, Neomi Rao and

Douglas Ginsburg considered the legal challenges brought by

TikTok and users against the law that gives ByteDance until Jan.

19 to sell or divest TikTok's U.S. assets or face a ban.

President Joe Biden, who signed the law in April, can grant

a one-time extension of up to 90 days, but only if ByteDance has

made significant progress in finding a buyer.

The Justice Department says under Chinese ownership, TikTok

poses a serious national security threat because of its access

to vast personal data of Americans, asserting China can covertly

manipulate information that Americans consume via TikTok.

TikTok and ByteDance argue the law is unconstitutional and

violates Americans' free speech rights. They call it "a radical

departure from this country's tradition of championing an open

Internet."

President-elect Donald Trump, who unsuccessfully tried to

ban TikTok during his first term in 2020, said before the

November elections he would not allow the ban on TikTok, which

is used by 170 million Americans

The law prohibits app stores like Apple ( AAPL ) and

Alphabet's Google from offering TikTok and bars

internet hosting services from supporting TikTok unless

ByteDance divests TikTok by the deadline.