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 H.R.7521, 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 said it plans to ask the Supreme Court to overturn the appeals court decision.
