TikTok Faces Tough Questions From Judges in Fight Over U.S. Ban

A panel of federal judges pressed TikTok on Monday to defend its right to continue operating in the United States under Chinese ownership and made pointed remarks that called the company’s legal arguments into question, in a landmark case that could determine whether the video app survives in the country.

In a roughly two-hour appearance before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, three judges asked probing questions of both TikTok and the government about an April law that forces ByteDance, the app’s owner, to sell TikTok to a non-Chinese company before Jan. 19 or face a ban in the United States. The lawyers have asked the judges to deliver a decision in the case before Dec. 6, and legal experts anticipate the losing party will appeal to the Supreme Court.

Two of the judges expressed some skepticism around TikTok’s arguments that Congress lacks the authority to pass such a law, and its defense that it was being unfairly singled out. Neomi Rao, one of the judges, said the company’s legal position relied on “a very strange framework for thinking about” congressional authority.

Douglas Ginsburg, another judge in the case, said, “It’s a rather blinkered view that this statute view just singles out one company.”

Two judges also pressed the government on how a ban might infringe on the First Amendment rights of TikTok’s U.S. operation and those of users, and how it would justify that.

A ban on TikTok would be the highest-profile prohibition of a foreign-owned app from the U.S. government. It would upend the app’s status as a cultural juggernaut in America, and force its 170 million U.S. users — and the so-called creator economy it helps to fuel — onto other platforms or revenue sources. It would also escalate a digital cold war with China, which has condemned previous calls from the U.S. government to force a divestment of TikTok.