A three-judge federal appeals court panel ruled unanimously on Friday to uphold a law that could potentially ban TikTok in the United States.

The law, passed by Congress in April and signed into law by President Joe Biden, requires TikTok’s Chinese owner ByteDance to sell it to an American owner by January 19, 2025 or face an effective ban.

In a majority opinion, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said: “We recognize that this decision has a significant impact on TikTok and its users.” If the platform is not divested, the court said, it will “be included in the United States will be virtually unavailable, at least for a time.”

“Consequently, the millions of TikTok users must find alternative communication media,” the statement continued.

Friday’s decision prepares TikTok to take its case to the Supreme Court.

In a statement, TikTok pinned its hopes on the Supreme Court ruling in its favor.

“The Supreme Court has a long history of protecting Americans’ right to free speech, and we expect it will do just that on this important constitutional issue,” the company said in the statement. “Unfortunately, the TikTok ban was designed and enforced based on inaccurate, erroneous and hypothetical information, resulting in total censorship of the American people. “The TikTok ban, if not stopped, will silence the voices of over 170 million Americans here in the U.S. around the world on January 19, 2025.”

President-elect Donald Trump may grant a 90-day extension “based on progress” on the divestment order after he takes office on Jan. 20, the statement said. During his campaign, Trump said he would “save TikTok from a ban” if elected, although opinions among his announced Cabinet members vary on whether TikTok should face a ban.

TikTok argued to the judges that the order to sell the platform was unconstitutional, violated their First Amendment rights and that China had no influence over its algorithms. TikTok’s creators have also argued that the platform was unfairly targeted, pointing out that user data was collected by other US tech companies and sold worldwide.

The majority opinion stated: “The First Amendment is designed to protect free speech in the United States. Here the government acted solely to protect that freedom from a foreign adversary nation and to limit that adversary’s ability to collect data about people in the United States.”

TikTok has become a powerful tool for Americans to make money, promote small businesses and make their voices heard. It is used by around half of the US population, including dozens of politicians.

TikTok launched in the US in 2018 and grew in popularity in 2020 during the pandemic. The app uses a recommendation algorithm to provide users with a stream of short videos that quickly adapt to the user’s interests. TikTok is best known for its young generation of social media stars, some of whom have found fame through viral dances or comedy content.

Over the years, TikTok has also become a major source of news and information on everything from politics to cooking to retail. People of all ages and demographics use TikTok, with Generation Z in particular preferring it as a search engine over Google.

In 2020, political concerns about ByteDance emerged. TikTok was developed in China, where it has its own version of the app called Douyin. Trump’s nominee for secretary of state, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, began calling for a review of TikTok’s national security impact in 2019.

After TikTok users claimed they had manipulated voter turnout at one of Trump’s rallies in 2020, then-President Trump tried to ban the app with an executive order, but it was rejected in court. Trump has admitted he believes TikTok poses a national security threat but said a ban would strengthen Mark Zuckerberg’s meta, whom Trump called the “enemy of the people.”

Trump’s more recent embrace of TikTok leaves the ban in a political limbo. Opposition to TikTok due to national security concerns has been bipartisan – prominent Democrats have supported a ban and it is also a major initiative under Project 2025. New Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr, who wrote a chapter in the Heritage Foundation’s Playbook on the FCC wrote , said banning TikTok would be a priority.

Civil rights and technology freedom groups quickly reacted and condemned Friday’s ruling.

The American Civil Liberties Union called the court’s decision “a major blow to free speech online” and called on the Trump administration to work with Congress to “fix or repeal this flawed legislation.”

“The government cannot shut down an entire communications platform unless it poses extremely serious and imminent harm, and there is no evidence of that here,” said Patrick Toomey, deputy director of the ACLU’s National Security Project. “This decision sets a flawed and dangerous precedent,” one that gives the government far too much power to silence Americans’ speech online. Banning TikTok blatantly violates the First Amendment rights of millions of Americans who use this app to express themselves and communicate with people around the world.”

The Center for Democracy and Technology, a digital rights nonprofit that has received some funding from tech companies, also released a statement opposing the court’s decision.

“The D.C. Circuit’s decision to uphold the TikTok ban will disrupt the free expression of hundreds of millions of TikTok users in the U.S. and worldwide who use the app to create, share information, get their news, and promote their businesses , impact immeasurably,” he told Kate Ruane, lawyer and director of the Free Expression Project. “We hope that the next phase of review of this misguided and overly broad law provides an opportunity to right this wrong and prevent it from coming into force.”