The Jewish Federations of North America applauded the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., for its unanimous ruling on Dec. 6 to uphold a law requiring Chinese company ByteDance to sell the social media app TikTok or face an effective ban in the United States.
The three-judge panel rejected TikTok’s argument that the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act is unconstitutional and violates the First Amendment rights of the 170 million Americans who use the app.
“This law is designed to address U.S. national security, but it will also do something else — slow the antisemitism epidemic that this platform has helped spread around the globe since the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel,” the group stated.
JFNA reported that “antisemitic comments on TikTok rose 912%” in just one year.
“Jewish Federations will always stand against antisemitic hatred and bias, which is why we supported this law’s passage at every stage,” the group added. “Today, the law was found to be constitutionally sound, and we look forward to its implementation and enforcement.”
If ByteDance fails to sell TikTok by Jan. 19, then app-store companies will be legally required to stop supporting the social network.
TikTok and ByteDance — another plaintiff in the lawsuit — are expected to appeal to the Supreme Court, though its unclear whether the court will take up the case.
Though the case is squarely in the court system, it’s also possible the two companies might be thrown some sort of a lifeline by President-elect Donald Trump, who tried to ban TikTok during his first term but said during the presidential campaign that he is now against such action.
“He wants to save TikTok,” Rep. Michael Waltz, Trump’s pick for national security adviser, said Friday during an interview on Fox Business.
On Capitol Hill, lawmakers who had pushed for the legislation celebrated the court’s ruling.
“I am optimistic that President Trump will facilitate an American takeover of TikTok to allow its continued use in the United States and I look forward to welcoming the app in America under new ownership,” said Republican Rep. John Moolenaar of Michigan, chairman of the House Select Committee on China.
Democratic Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, who co-authored the law, said “it’s time for ByteDance to accept” the law.
The law, signed by President Joe Biden in April, was the culmination of a years-long saga in Washington over the short-form video-sharing app, which the government sees as a national security threat due to its connections to China.
The U.S. has said it’s concerned about TikTok collecting vast swaths of user data, including sensitive information on viewing habits, that could fall into the hands of the Chinese government through coercion. Officials have also warned the proprietary algorithm that fuels what users see on the app is vulnerable to manipulation by Chinese authorities, who can use it to shape content on the platform in a way that’s difficult to detect. The European Union on Friday expressed similar concerns as it investigates intelligence that suggests Russia possibly abused the platform to influence the elections in Romania.
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