The decision is a victory for the US Justice Department and opponents of the Chinese-owned app, but a blow to ByteDance. It raises the possibility of an unprecedented ban in the next six weeks for a social network used by 170 million Americans.

However, the ruling is expected to be appealed to the Supreme Court.

As is known, according to the previous ruling, ByteDance has until January 19 to sell or divest TikTok's US assets or face a ban.

If it is banned, TikTok advertisers will look for new social media outlets to buy ads. As a result, shares of Meta, which competes with TikTok in online advertising, hit a record high the day after the ruling, rising more than 2%. Google parent Alphabet, which owns the YouTube video platform that also competes with TikTok, rose more than 1%.

Free speech advocates immediately criticized the decision. The American Civil Liberties Union said it set a “wrong and dangerous precedent.” TikTok said it hoped the Supreme Court would overturn the appeals court’s decision.

“The Supreme Court has a long history of protecting Americans’ free speech rights, and we hope they will do the same on this important constitutional issue,” TikTok said in a statement.

In its analysis, the court said China, through its relationship with TikTok's parent company ByteDance, threatened to distort American voices through TikTok and "manipulate public discourse."

Attorney General Merrick Garland made a similar point in his statement about the decision, calling it "an important step in preventing the Chinese Communist Party from using TikTok as a weapon to collect sensitive information about millions of Americans, secretly manipulate the content served to American audiences, and undermine our national security."

Hoang Hai (according to Reuters, AP)