Recently, a panel of three federal appeals courts unanimously upheld a law that could have banned TikTok in the US. In response, ByteDance, the Chinese company behind TikTok, asked the US appeals court to temporarily block the law, which President Biden. However, TikTok’s appeal to delay its ban in the US has now been rejected by the US court.
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This means that the deadline for TikTok to leave the country remains January 19, with the company now hoping that a Supreme Court appeal will save it.
In an order filed Friday, the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia said that issuing a temporary injunction to halt the ban was “unwarranted.” The court explained that doing so would not simply delay the legal decision, but would completely suspend a law that Congress intentionally enacted and upheld as constitutional.
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The court also noted that TikTok’s appeal was based on its claim that the ban violates its First Amendment right to free speech. In its petition filed last Monday, TikTok argued that the Supreme Court would likely review the case, stating that “restrictions on [free] speech have survived strict scrutiny only in rare and narrow circumstances.”
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Other tech companies like Google and social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram are equally problematic. They may be American companies, but privacy is privacy and should not be exploited, no matter where the company is based. If regulators are serious about data protection, they should focus on how all companies handle information, not just picking and choosing which ones to target.
Source: phonearena
