TikTok faces ban in the US, federal court rejects platform's bid to overturn law

TikTok has failed in its bid to overturn a law that could have resulted in the platform being banned in the United States. A federal court upheld the law in a ruling issued Friday.

While rejecting TikTok's argument that the law was unconstitutional, judges on the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia said the law does not "contradict the First Amendment to the United States Constitution" nor "violate the Fifth Amendment's guarantee of equal protection of the laws."

The decision, which TikTok is expected to appeal, means the platform is one step closer to facing a US ban.

Meanwhile, in April, Joe Biden signed a bill requiring the platform to be sold to a new non-Chinese owner or banned in the United States, after years of concern on Capitol Hill that Chinese parent company ByteDance poses a national security risk.

Lawmakers have been concerned that ByteDance could share user data with the Chinese government for surveillance, or that the Chinese government could force the company into TikTok's algorithm to spread propaganda.

On the other hand, TikTok filed a lawsuit to block this law, arguing that it violated the freedom of speech of its more than 170 million American users.

In a hearing in September, US government lawyers argued that TikTok's algorithm is controlled by its Chinese parent company and could be used to influence American users.