A U.S. federal appeals court ruled in support of a law requiring Chinese company ByteDance to sell the TikTok app in the U.S. by early next year. If this requirement is not met, the application is threatened with a complete ban. About this informs Reuters.
The court’s ruling was a major victory for the US Department of Justice and TikTok’s critics, while dealing a major blow to parent company ByteDance. This greatly increases the risk that the app, used by 170 million Americans, could be banned within the next six weeks.
The court explained its decision by the fact that the law is the result of bipartisan cooperation between Republicans and Democrats, as well as two US presidents. The law is aimed at countering a “well-founded threat to national security” that the court said China poses.
TikTok announced its intention to appeal this decision in the Supreme Court. US Attorney General Merrick Garland called the decision “an important step to prevent TikTok from being used as a tool of the Chinese government.”
In response, the Chinese embassy in Washington sharply criticized the law, calling it a “flagrant act of commercial robbery.” The Chinese side warned the US against further actions that could undermine mutual trust and negatively affect bilateral relations between the countries.
